Rise of the Kami
by Dr. Darric
Summary: Everyone had high hopes for the Namikaze heir, but can he live up to their expectations when a crippling injury effects his life? Kyuubi-less Naruto. AU God-mode Naruto, Choji, and Konohamaru. Minato and Kushina are alive. Rated M just in case.
1. Chapter 1

Hello, all! This is my first Naruto fanfic. I've been reading a lot of time travel/alternate universe Naruto fics lately, so I thought I'd give it a shot myself! Some of the main characters in this will be about 5-6 years older than their used to be. Those that will be around the same age will be Naruto, Anko, Choji, Itachi, Lee, Shizune, Chojuro, and Pakura. Those are all I have so far. Well, enjoy the read! Any and all criticism is welcome!

_Chapter 1_

Any second now, Naruto Namikaze knew that he would become a big brother. It was only a matter of moments, and the small child was extremely excited, knowing that a little brother or sister would certainly brighten up his already sun-bright world. He was literally bouncing on his feet while being watched by a couple of older ninja of the village whose mission was to protect the little ball of energy.

"I can't wait!" little Naruto squeaked out, continuing to bounce. "Ka-chan will be back with my little brother anytime!"

A lot of the jonin that were assigned to look over Naruto were smiling at the young child's antics, but quickly sobered as they remembered exactly why it was their duty to protect Naruto. For some odd reason, the Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and his wife, Kushina Uzumaki, believed that the seal of the Kyuubi would actually falter during her trails of labor this time around. They had to set up extra precautions to make sure that the village and, more importantly, Naruto would be safe. The child was about to squeak something else out, when something suddenly caught everyone's attention.

A mighty roar rattled out from the distance, signaling that something had went wrong during the pregnancy and that the Kyuubi had been released from its vessel. Quite suddenly, a large red-orange paw slammed into a building, and now that their view was now hindered, they could see that the Kyuubi was now within the confines of the village. Several of the jonin and chunin that were hired to protect the Hokage's son were getting ready to leave the barrier that was placed around them, completely willing to give their lives to protect their village, before an elderly man wearing all black appeared before them, gripping unto a massive yellow-tipped, black pole.

"You all, stay within this barrier!" the man shouted, not even glancing at them. "This is for the older generation to get through. If we are to lay down our lives this day, then it is up to you all to keep the Will of Fire burning strong for future generations."

"But, pops..." a tan skinned jonin spoke up, feeling that he was ready to take on the Kyuubi.

"Asuma, listen to your father," the old man said coolly, without turning around again. "I have a feeling that you all will try to follow anyways, so I apologize in advance."

The old man made a ram hand sign as all of those within the barrier quickly began to nod off, and within 10 seconds all of them were asleep.

"_We must not have any unnecessary casualties today..."_ the old man thought to himself as he Shunshined to the battlefield, preparing to take the Kyuubi on by himself.

As soon as the old was out of sight, a dark cloak figure wearing a mask with a flame pattern on it appeared within the barrier, materializing out of a vortex. "Hm...where is the child..." he spoke out loud in a deep, gravelly voice. As soon as his eyes spotted a peacefully sleeping Naruto, a vortex appeared from the mask's solitary eye hole and Naruto disappeared from sight.

"_This will only take a moment,"_ he thought to himself as he got absorbed into his own eye hole.

* * *

_Near the Hokage Mansion..._

Hiruzen Sarutobi appeared out of a cloud of smoke with his Adamantine Staff as stretched as it could possibly be and striked the Kyuubi on its chin, knocking the giant beast into the air and onto its back.

Once Hiruzen landed on top of a building, two figures immediately landed directly next to him. One was a man with spiky, white hair that ended in a ponytail cascading down his back, while the other was a woman of immense beauty with blond hair, bangs that cupped her face and a purple diamond in the middle of her forehead.

"Sorry we were late, sensei," Tsunade spoke, analyzing the Kyuubi's attempt at getting back onto its feet. "We would have been here sooner, if this gaki could resist temptation..."

"Hey, all that matters now is that we're here," Jiraiya replied to the woman. "Taking it Kushina's seal finally failed. I can probably get it back into a vessel, but we need to get the beast contained first. And away from the village. I don't want to seal any bystanders."

Hiruzen nodded at his two students. "Until we are able to drive it from the village, we must weaken it with our strength."

"Agreed," the two adults next to the old man said at the same time.

The both bit into their thumb, drawing blood, before slamming their hands onto the roof they were standing on. Pouring as much chakra as they could into the jutsu, large black circles appeared beneath them. **"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"** the both shouted at the same time and two massive clouds of smoke appeared.

When it cleared, it showed to massive animals standing side by side. Though they were not the size of the Kyuubi, they were still formidably large creatures.

"What's the situation, Tsunade-sama?" Katsuyu asked politely, waiting for her summoner to speak.

"The Nine Tails is out and about. I need you to go around the village and check to see if there are any people injured. Take care of them if you can."

"Hai!" the giant slug replied, bursting and splitting up into thousands and thousands of small slugs before they all crawled away at a quick pace.

"Ah, Kyuubi," the giant toad boss spoke, taking a long drag from his pipe. "We meet again. Let's do this, Jiraiya!"

Before Jiraiya could even reply, Gamabunta shot up into the sky and landed unto the Kyuubi's back as it just stationed itself back on its feet. The giant fox roared out in annoyance as it was once again driven down into the ground. The fox was about to swipe at the toad before a swing from Hiruzen's staff whacked its paw, a sharp crack reverberating across the village that most people felt. The fox screamed out in agony as it felt the bone in its leg snap, but it quickly began to heal itself, but not quick enough for the fox to put up a defense from Jiraiya's oncoming attack.

"**Chōōdama Rasengan!" **Jiraiya shouted as he drove the oversized Rasengan into the Kyuubi's face. On his shoulders were two small toads, sitting completely still.

The demon fox screamed out in agony as it felt the massive sphere of chakra crater itself into the ground. And suddenly, a yellow flash appeared, revealing the Yondaime Hokage who looked as if he had seen much better days.

"Tsunade! Jiraiya! Sarutobi! Come quickly!" he shouted as he dove down to the Kyuubi, placing his hand on it. He waited a for a second as the Sannin and the Sandaime Hokage got to him, placing their hands on his body, before all of them, including the giant fox had disappeared from the village.

* * *

_Jinchuriki Sealing Grounds..._

The four ninja that just disappeared reappeared in a large clearing surrounded by hundreds of massive trees that easily towered over all present. The only things that were in the clearing before Minato, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Hiruzen arrived was a massive red torii and beneath was a tiny alter with two figures laying down beside it. The first was a clearly pained woman and the other was tiny and wrapped in a bundle of blankets.

"Kushina!" Tsunade screamed and ran over to run some vitals and the red-headed woman.

"Do you have a seal for this, Jiraiya?" Minato asked as he watched the Kyuubi get back on its feet. "We need to hurry and seal this thing."

"Of course I can seal this. We just need Kushina up and about so she can help us seal this demon, once again."

As soon as the Nine Tails was on its feet again, it began to gather chakra in front of its face, preparing to unleash a Bijūdama on those surrounding him. The gathering of chakra stopped as Hiruzen slapped the demon fox in the face once again with his Adamantine Staff.

"Tsunada, we're running out of time! Are you almost done?!" Hiruzen shouted, getting ready to attack the Kyuubi again.

"Finished!" Tsunade shouted and leaped away from Kushina and punched the Kyuubi in between its eyes, knocking it backwards.

"Kushina, we need to-" Hiruzen started, but suddenly a flash of red light appeared in their midst and they all stopped to stare at the new strange figure that was now standing amongst them.

He was standing at about 6 feet and he wore a simple black jumpsuit. On his face was a mask with the same spiral pattern as the man that Minato had recently battled against, but the color of the mask was an extremely bright white, as if the mask itself was glowing. On top of his head was short, spiky red hair that pointed in all directions. His right arm had a gauntlet attached to it that started at the tips of his fingers and traveled up just past his elbow. He looked at the Nine Tails and a growl came out of him.

"We cannot seal this demon with Kushina again. Doing so will ultimately cause her death and the released energy of the fox will most likely kill everyone in Hi no Kuni," the man spoke in a gravelly tone. "We need a new vessel for the fox. We must use the child."

Kushina placed her arms defensively around her child and was about to protest when Minato stepped up to her. "This is really the only way, Kushina. The only way we can save everyone and protect the village." He looked down at the bundle in his wife's arms as tears sprang to his eyes and he started to take the newborn child away from his wife.

He quickly walked away and up to the alter, placing the baby on top of it. He looked back to the man and nodded to him before the man nodded back.

The man dashed quickly in front of the Nine Tails and performed hand seals faster than anyone there could follow.

"_Who is this man?" _Minato thought to himself.

"**Tajū Mugen Hōyō!" **the man shouted. A purple barrier appeared around the Nine Tails and it started to scream as it felt its chakra being drained.

The man then went perfectly still for a moment before using two hand seals. **"Senpō: Myōjinmon!"**

Giant red torii fell down from the sky, immediately pinning the Nine Tails to the ground and at that moment, he released his first barrier, needing the Nine Tails' chakra to complete the seal.

"Kushina! Chakra Chains!" the man shouted at Kushina.

Random golden chains erupted from her body and the man's body as they began to further hold the Nine Tails down.

The man charged forward again with purple flames drenching the digits on his hand with the gauntlet. As soon as we in striking distance he lashed out at the Nine Tails. **"Gogyō Fūin!" **

He then began to wave his arms as a long strand of the fox's chakra connected to him and he quickly ran over to the alter placing his hands on the small child was peacefully sleeping.

"**Shishō Fūin!" **Almost immediately the form of the Nine Tailed Fox started to waver and it became pure orange chakra as began to flow through the man into the small bundle. It seemed to have taken an eternity as the bystanders watched with eyes as this single man tackled the feat of sealing the Nine Tails all by himself.

As soon as all of its chakra was within the baby, he slapped his onto the baby again and shouted, **"Hakke no Fūin Shiki!" **A spiral pattern appeared on the baby's small stomach. But he was not finished yet.

The fingers were once again covered in flames, but these were blue instead of purple. He slapped him into the baby's stomach and twisted while calmly saying, **"****Gogyō Kaiin." **

A sound like a massive gate crashing shut sounded out and the baby then began to cry. Kushina and Minato rushed over to check on their child, seeing the same spiral seal that was once on its mother. Kushina brought her child to her neck and turned to the mysterious man, a thousand questions ready to explode from hers and everyone's mouths.

"I have no answers for your questions, or rather, I will not answer any of your questions. Just...take care of that child. He will be the savior of the ninja world and he will need a family to get him there." Minato and Kushina looked really confused by this statement, but before they could ask anything then man just vanished into thin air, leaving nothing behind.

"What did he mean _'he'_?" Kushina asked Minato. "Our baby is a girl. Maybe he didn't really know..."

"Perhaps," Minato, thought. "We're going to have to take extra precautions with our child. We need to start training her in secret when she is old enough. We don't anyone else like that...other guy trying to take her without a fight."

The five shinobi then turned and started to walk back to Konohagakure, still feeling the shock from watching the strange man perform god-like feats.

* * *

_Barrier Room..._

A spiral portal opened up and a man dressed in black with a spiral mask stepped out of it holding a small Naruto in his arms. He walked back over to where he found him and laid the body down gently.

"There. No one will know the difference for awhile to come. Let's just hope he is easy enough to persuade this time around..." the man said to himself.

He saw the bodies within the barrier room began to stir, showing that they were waking up and he silently faded from sight.

Asuma and Kurenai were the first ones to wake up fully with Kakashi and Gai following quickly after.

"Damn that old man!" Asuma shouted a little angrily. "We were more than ready to protect this village and he just goes and puts us to sleep!"

"You must have forgotten your mission, then," Hiruzen said, appearing directly next to his son. "Your mission was to protect the Hokage's son. Nothing more, nothing less. You all accomplished this mission and this will go on your mission records." Hiruzen walked over to the still sleeping Naruto and scooped him up.

"Where are you taking little Naruto-kun to?" Kurenai asked the old man.

"I'm taking him to the hospital to see his parents and new sibling. He'll be glad to know he's an older brother," Hiruzen replied, smiling at the teenager before slowly walking away from the group of young jōnin and chūnin.

"As much as I hate to suggest this," Kakashi started, "maybe we should go around the village, offering help to those that need it."

"What a great idea, Kakashi! Let's let the villagers know that we will be there for them at all times!" Maito Gai shouted, earning glares from everyone.

* * *

_Konohagakure Hospital..._

"Aw, look at little Akiko!" Jiraiya squealed, poking the sleeping girl's nose.

"Jiraiya," Minato said quietly, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Quiet down, She and my wife are sleeping. And that's it! She's just sleeping!"

Tsunade stifled a laugh at the white haired man's antics, but stopped to turn at the door as it was opening, seeing a small blond boy with deep blue eyes walking quietly into the room. He walked over to his father and threw his arms around his legs.

"Otou-san! Are you all right?" Naruto asked, looking up at his father's clothing and seeing all of the tears in his cloaks and the dried blood that was caking his skin.

"Oh, yes, yes, I'm fine, little fine. Nothing to worry about," Minato flashed his son a smile. "But come with me. Would you like to see your little sister?"

Naruto started to nod his head vigorously up and down as his father smiled and placed a finger to his lips, signaling the young boy to be quiet. The walked over to a small crib and inside was a small girl with short blond hair. Naruto felt his heart cry with happiness as he looked on into the crib, realizing that he was now an older brother. He reached into the crib and stroked his new sister's cheek and her eyes slowly opened and locked onto Naruto's. She was staring at him curiously and he honestly felt that this was most the happy moment in his short life.

Minato walked over to Jiraiya and Tsunada and quickly got serious. "It's going to be tough to deal with the elders with this. They're really going to want to know what happened to the Kyuubi and I can't just tell them that we sealed it into Akiko."

"Things do spread around rather quickly, but don't you worry. We'll keep the secret to ourselves!" Jiraiya declared, getting a smile from his former student and a sigh from his former teammate.

Jutsu list

**Kuchiyose no Jutsu! - Summoning Technique**

******Chōōdama Rasengan! - Ultra Big Ball Rasengan**

**Tajū Mugen Hōyō! - Multiple Infinite Embraces**

******Senpō: Myōjinmon! - Sage Art: Gate of the Great God**

**Gogyō Fūin! - Five Elements Seal**

******Shishō Fūin! - Four Symbol Seals**

**********Hakke no Fūin Shiki! - Eight Trigrams Sealing Style**

**************Gogyō Kaiin. - Five Elements Unseal**


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't not own Naruto, only the OCs and the plot...maybe

Hey, all! Here's the second chapter. In this installment, Naruto finally gets around to making some friends and learning one of the first steps to become a true shinobi. All criticism is welcome, so, please, review. Enjoy the read.

_Chapter 2_

6 months have passed and everything is going perfectly in the Namikaze household. At first, when the baby was finally brought home, Naruto was wary of it, thinking that it would steal of the attention at home and make his parents completely forget about him. I mean, of course, he loved his sister already, but there was already some unknown circumstantial jealousy attached to him. But it was uncalled for, because his mom still woke him up in the mornings, helped him get dressed sometimes, still made his favorite ramen and sandwiches (with the crust cut off, of course!), and they still even went for walks together to go visit his father at work. Even though there was an extra addition to their usual escapades, he still received the necessary amount of attention from both parents with a new baby around. And you could just tell that the young Namikaze loved his baby sister. He was usually the only one who was able to feed her without mushed up food being spit onto his face. He would even take her out into the world, young Akiko strapped into a baby stroller and an ANBU member watching them from the shadows. But life with a baby sister was much better than Naruto expected.

Today was going to be a fun day. Randomly throughout the year since he was chosen as Hokage, Minato would host a massive picnic to promote good nature and feelings between the shinobi population and the civilian population. All were welcome to the picnic, and with an unlimited amount of food, they would be foolish to decline an invitation like that.

This was Naruto's first time attending the picnic that he could actually remembering going to, the other times he was too lazy to wake up and enjoy it. Walking down the street with Kushina to his right and his sister, Akiko, in a stroller, in front of him. He was literally bouncing with energy as he was pushing his baby sister along, thinking of the prospect of finally meeting new friends. Not like those civilian children that he met on his way to the park, but real children of shinobi, just like him and his parents! He was just bubbling with energy and Kushina could definitely see it, smiling widely at her first born.

"Excited to make new friends, huh, Naru-chan?" Kushina asked her son, messing up his hair.

Naruto was too excited to even speak and just nodded his head rapidly, causing Kushina to chuckle out an airy and light giggle. "Of course, you are! These kids will be amazing, just like you. There will be high chances that they'll be sticking around with through the academy and further in life." She smiled down at her son and the two kept walking, quickly approaching the large clearing that was use for the picnics.

Kushina glanced around and, true to his word, her husband was not there yet. It was up to her to be the hostess this year. She sighed with defeat. She told Naruto to go and wait with Tsunade as she prepared to speak.

"Hey, little man," Tsunade smiled at Naruto, giving him a soft noogie. "How have you been? Haven't seen you in awhile."

"I've been okay, Bā-chan. I started reading Otō-san's big books on...on stuff!" Naruto blurted out excitedly, glad that he could finally read some of the larger words in books. "Like something called...cha...chackrah? I think..." Naruto looked really confused, but Tsunade just laughed, bending down and giving the little guy a hug.

"Oh, you are just so cute! Already turning into a strong shinobi just like your father." She picked up Naruto and placed him on her left shoulder and picked up Akiko from her stroller and placed her on her right shoulder, bouncing the two kids around as they laughed with joy.

Tsunade stopped bouncing briefly and looked around, a little concern showing on her face. "Where is that child of mine?" she said under her breath, but Naruto heard her.

"Huh, did Bā-chan say she has a child?" Naruto asked the woman curiously.

"Wha? Oh, yeah, I found her a couple of months ago. She was related to...someone I knew personally, so I feel it's kind of my responsibility to look after her. I kind of adopted her about a month ago," Tsunade finished sheepishly, putting the little boy back down onto the ground and the little girl back into her stroller. "I'll go find her and introduce you two."

Kushina approached Naruto and Akiko with two other women and two other children in tow. One was a woman of medium height, who had long black hair and with equally black eyes. She had a bright smile on her face as she was conversing animatedly with Kushina. She was wearing the standard Konohagakure flak jacket, a black jumpsuit serving as the rest of her clothes, and her forehead protector was placed unto the right breast pocket. Walking to her right was a boy around the same age as Naruto. He had short black hair with bangs that bordered his face and his eyes were just as black as his mother's. He wore a simple black t-shirt and grey pants that stopped just above his ankles. The other woman was full-bodied and was rather tall, but gave off an atmosphere that she was the most kind and caring woman that you would ever meet. Her hair was really short and black, her eyes matching. But she had orange markings on the sides of her eyes, accentuating them. She had on a light shade of red lipstick and red stud earrings. Just like the previous woman, she had on an open flak jacket due to her bulky size and underneath, she had on a lightly armored, with the _shoku _printed on the front in red. To her left was a small boy around the same age as Naruto, but this one had spiky brown hair and swirls on both of his cheeks. He had the same black eyes as his mother. He was wearing a long sleeved shirt, the top half being an extremely light green while the bottom half was a deep forest green. He wore black shorts and black sandals.

"Mikoto, Chiharu, you both remember little Naru-chan," Kushina spoke to the women, leaning down and giving her son a cuddle. "And this is little Akiko, mommy's chīsai tenshi!" She picked up Akiko and gave her a cuddle as well. "I brought them over her, Naru-chan, so they could introduce you to their children and you all could go off and play."

The larger woman, Chiharu, stepped forward and the little boy stepped up with her. "Naru-chan, this is Chōji."

"Nice to meet you, Chōji!" Naruto said excitedly, smiling widely.

"Nice to meet you, too, Naruto," the chubby little boy replied.

Next up was Mikoto. "And this, Naru-chan, is Itachi. I've been dying for the two of you to meet," she said softly, pushing her son out in front of her.

"Nice to meet you, Naruto-san," Itachi said, bowing to Naruto.

Naruto just wrinkled his nose at the boy. "Ewww, don't call me -san just yet! I'm not ready for that!" Naruto cried, making the adults laugh at the boy's antic. "Just Naruto, please." Naruto stuck his hand out, and Itachi grabbed it, the two boys shaking hands briefly. "Wanna play tag?" Naruto asked and the two boys nodded, Naruto touching Itachi and then him and Chōji running away from the young Uchiha.

"That's a real beautiful kid you've got their, Kushina," Chiharu stated. "I think him little Chōji are really going to hit it off."

"Same with Itachi," Mikoto threw in. "Ever since his father has seen his natural ability, he has been distancing him away from other people, focusing solely on his training. He's made Itachi practice his Shurikenjutsu over and over, and he almost has it down perfectly."

"No way, that's pretty impressive," Kushina started, but was interrupted again by Mikoto.

"But he doesn't give the time of day to meet anyone. The only one in our clan who goes out of their way to talk to him, who is his only real friend is Shisui, but even that seems a bit forced..."

Just then, Tsunade came running up to the three women with a little girl riding on her shoulders. "Hey, Kushina, where did Naruto go? I want to introduce him to Shizune."

Kushina looked around and saw her son and his two new friends talking with Hiruzen and his grandson. "Seems he's over there with your sensei," Kushina told the woman, pointing in the direction of Hiruzen.

Tsunade muttered a thanks before taking off in the direction just mentioned.

* * *

"Ah, so, this is Chōji," Hiruzen stated, smiling down at the children. "How you remind me of your father. I remember it was just like yesterday when I presented your father and his teammates with their earrings. Hopefully soon, you too will also receive your earring." Hiruzen extended his hand and shook the little boy's hand. He then placed his hand on a boy's shoulder who was standing next to him. "This is my grandson, Konohamaru. He is the first child of my eldest daughter, Hanako. Konohamaru, this is Naruto, Chōji, and Itachi. Why don't you all go and play somewhere."

They all nodded at each other and just before they were about to run off, Tsunade approached them with a girl around their age riding on her shoulders. "Hey, guys, don't you all run off yet! I want to put a new member in your little gang!" Tsunade picked the girl up and plopped her unto her feet in front of the small group of boys, all of them looking each other up and down. "This here is Shizune Katō. She wants to play with you all, but she's pretty shy."

"Tsunaaaadeee," the little girl whined as her cheekss took on a shade of red. This caused Tsunade to chuckle.

"Oh, you know I'm only teasing. Now, go off and play. Have fun!"

The kids all looked at each before dashing off in a single direction, heading over towards a small stream on the opposite side of the clearing.

* * *

"So, Shizune," Naruto started, placing his now bare feet into the stream as he sat down. "What's it like having Bā-chan as a mom?"

"Well, it's honestly not that. She can be really strict, but after awhile, you know she really cares for you," Shizune replied, smiling warmly at the young boy.

"I like Chōji's mom!" Konohamaru piped up. "She's huge! I bet she could even beat up jiji!"

"I wouldn't doubt that," Chōji said. "I remember a few weeks ago, dad made a joke about her cooking and she threw him through two walls. My dad is bigger than she is..."

This caused all of the other kids to laugh and clutch their stomachs, tears threatening to spill out of their eyes. Konohamaru sobered up first and decided to ask them all a question.

"Have any of you started ninja training yet? Jiji started training me in chakra control about a month ago, but it's hard."

Itachi nodded. "It is pretty hard, but I think I've almost gotten it down. What about you three?"

"Well, Tsunade has been teaching me the beginning of medical techniques, so yeah, a bit," Shizune replied.

Naruto and Chōji both looked at each other before looking back at the other three and shaking their heads 'no'.

"You haven't?!" Konohamaru practically screamed, standing up in the stream. "Well, let's get you started then!"

He got out of the stream and started to walk around the ground, occasionally picking up something that both of the boys could not see. "What do you think he's doing?" Chōji whispered to Naruto.

"Beats me."

Konohamaru appeared a moment later with five medium-sized, bright green leaves. With a smile he handed all of them one leaf and keeping one for himself. Almost immediately, Itahci, Shizune, and Konohamaru all got serious as they were attempting something that neither Naruto or Chōji knew.

"Hey! What are we supposed to be doing with these?" Naruto asked Konohamaru with a hint of irritation in his voice.

"Oh, I forgot how explain...hm..." Konohamaru pondered for a moment. "You have to pull the chakra out of you and use it to hold the leaf in place." Konohamaru gave Naruto a triumphant smile before going back to the exercise.

Naruto gave Chōji a confused look before looking around at the picnic. He saw his father conversing with Jiraiya and Chōza, so he decided he could ask anyone about pulling out chakra and everything important, it would be best to ask his father.

* * *

"Things are getting pretty hectic in Kirigakure," Minato told the two men. "The civil wars and blood wars in surrounding villages are giving the Mizukage a really hard time. Yagura really wants some back up, but I'm afraid that a civil war isn't our best interest at the moment." Just as he finished, he noticed Naruto and Chōji approaching him quickly. Both boys stopped in front of their fathers, trying to catch their breath before asking a something. "Hey, kid. Made a new friend, I see." Minato smiled down at his son while Chōza was doing the same.

"Otō-san, how do you bring out chakra?" Naruto asked Minato between intakes of oxygen.

Minato looked down at his son with a proud look on his face. _"My boy is already wanting to train to become a shinobi."_

"Well, you already know what chakra is, since we read that book together so I won't have to explain that, but just think of chakra as a warm sensation in your belly. That's where most of your chakra lives. What you need to do first is concentrate on that warm sensation and when you finally find out, just start pulling it out. So, go ahead and give it a try. The best way to start is to sit in a half lotus position and make the ram seal while concentrating." Minato sat on the ground and demonstrated the position that they would need to sit in and the shape their hands needed to make. "Now, you try."

Naruto and Chōji both nodded before sitting in the same position that they saw Minato sit in and placed their hands in a ram seal. And there they just sat, searching for something, searching for anything! A minute passed, and then five, and then eight. When both of the boys were ready to just give up, the finally felt something. It was like...a burning in their belly. They snaked around their insides until they could see a faintly glowing blue light. A short tendril of light blue snaked its way into the subconscious and they both grabbed it at the same time.

* * *

"-so, anyways, I was telling the girl that I was the son of the Fire Daimyō-" Jiraiya was in the middle of a story when a large gust of wind assaulted the three men standing next to the two boys.

A massive aura of spiky, blue chakra was dancing chaotically around them while wind was being produced from the chakra's erratic movements. Minato and Jiraiya were blown onto their backs while Chōza was nearly knocked off of his feet, firmly planting his feet into the earth. Once the barrage of chakra ended, both Naruto and Chōji opened their eyes, looking at each other and smiling widely, before a massive amount of fatigue struck them.

"Ugh, why am I so tired?" Chōji asked no one in particular.

"Because you just unleashed a large amount of chakra. I'm very proud of you, son," Chōza said to his son, scooping him up and placing him on his shoulders.

"And I'm proud of you, big guy!" Minato laughed at his son, seeing him try to stand up but falling onto his behind. "Come on, let's get you something to eat so we can replenish your chakra."


	3. Chapter 3

Hey, all! Here is another installment of the Rise of the Kami! This chapter kind of got away from me. I literally had no control of this happening and I just went with it, letting everything flow. But I think everything fit together rather nicely, if I do say so, myself. Anyway, all criticism is welcome! Enjoy the read!

___Chapter 3_

Young Naruto's 7th birthday just passed and it was honestly one of the best birthdays and days the young blond has ever had. Of course, both of his parents and younger sister were there, his mother baking him his favorite kind of cakes. There were plenty of chocolate Taiyaki and much more strawberry shortcake. The usual guest were also there: Kakashi, Hiruzen, Jiraiya, and Tsunade. But this time, he had other guest that he was glad were there. Chiharu, Chōza, and Chōji. Mikoto and Itachi. Konohamaru came along with his jiji and Shizune came along with Bā-chan. Plus, he got plenty of awesome stuff! More awesome stuff than he ever thought he would get! From Okā-san, he got a beginner's sealing kit. From Otō-san, he received a Hiraishin kunai and a promise that when he thought he was ready, Tō-san would teach him the Hiraishin. From Jiji and Bā-chan, he received 5 scrolls that would help his chakra control more, since "Your control could never be perfect" they told him. He did not receive anything from Kakashi, since it is always a surprise that he manages to show up anywhere. From Jiraiya, he receive Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi, which he still had not gotten around to read. All of his friends actually saved up and gave Naruto a collective gift. It was a small green frog wallet that they named Gama-chan. Naruto was absolutely delighted and the tears that were threatening to escape his eyes during his present exchanging happened here, running and hugging his best friends.

_About 2 weeks after Naruto's birthday_

Naruto placed his ink brush back into its tray and cracked his knuckles. He looked over at his companion who was seated next to him at his chabudai. Little Akiko was gnawing at her sippy cup, drops of apple juice flying out of the top. He smiled over at his blond sister and wiped up some of the mess she made.

"Having fun, huh?" Naruto asked his little sister, he gave her older brother a playful and evil smile. "Please don't get anything on my mat. I'm almost done."

"Won't, Naru!" she replied happily, taking her sippy cup to her mouth.

Naruto pick up his ink brush again and slowly made the kanji for Fire, and once it was done, the mat he was working on started to glow a deep crimson before it faded, leaving its tan hide behind. Naruto looked pleased as his mother walked in, holding a small tray of sandwiches and right beside it, a small bowl of fruits. He guessed that the sandwiches were for him and that fruit was for his sister. He giggled as he thought about the image of his sister trying to attack a sandwich. He grabbed one, thanked his mom, and went back to staring at his scroll he just finished. He was looking over the scroll, trying to find out any subtle mistakes he could have made, before he thought about something Itachi told him a couple of days ago.

They were both talking about furthering their shinobi training when Itachi brought up that his father wanted to start working on Itachi's nature manipulation. Naruto, naturally curious (the little devil), asked Itachi, but he did not have the slightest idea as well, waiting for either his mother or father to teach him. Naruto thought that this was the perfect time to ask his mother about it.

"Kā-san? I have a question," Naruto spoke up, swallowing the last bit of his sandwich.

"What is it, sweetie?" she asked him, absently tickling her daughter.

"Can you teach me about nature manipulation? Itachi was telling me about how his father was going to start teaching him soon, and...I was wondering if you could teach me," Naruto looked up to his mother hopefully.

She sighed and said, "I'm sorry, Naru-chan, but your father and I both agree that you are not yet ready to work on that just yet. We think it will be safer for you if you wait a few years, like we both did." She gave him a pleasant smile before standing up and stretching. "Whew! I'm getting old. Anyway, I'm about to go visit your father at the office. Want to come along?" she asked her son.

"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" Akiko squealed, bouncing up and down in her chair, causing both mother and brother to laugh.

"Nah, I'm okay. I think I'll work a bit more on my fūinjutsu. I want it to be perfect."

Kushina nodded at her son and leaned and kissed the top of his head. "I love you, Naruto."

An intense warmth filled Naruto to the brim as he looked at his mother. He smiled widely at her and turned around to wrap her in a hug. "I love you, too, Kā-san!"

She returned the hug, told Naruto that they would be back in an hour or so, and left with Akiko. Naruto began working on a storage seal. Slowly, he applied the ink to a blank scroll, making sure that every line was as perfect as could be. Once he finished, he looked down at the scroll and was impressed with his own work. Smiling, he decided to test out the scroll. He looked around his room for something, but really could not find anything. So, out of desperation, he decided to use his sandal. He unhooked the apparel and placed it in the middle of the scroll. He placed both of his hands on either side of it and shouted, **"F****ū****in!" **

A bright blue light shinned out from the scroll and when it faded, Naruto saw that his sandal was no where to be found. He had a small celebration, realizing that he just sealed his first object, but quickly realized that he did not know how to retrieve said object. Naruto scratched his head with embarrassment upon knowing this, but, thankfully, no one was there to make fun of him for his elementary mistake. He shook his head at himself and decided that he would just ask his mom to teach him how to reverse seal objects already sealed. He got off of his tatami and walked over to his bed, sitting on top of the blankets rather than laying down.

He situated himself into a half lotus position and made the ram sign. He slowed his breathing down to the point where he forgot he was even breathing and the only thing that existed for him for just the moment was a swirling blue mass that appeared out of the darkness of his mind. He mentally reached for blue light and saw it snake its way toward him, completely filling the darkness that once surrounded him. Naruto felt a warmth spread throughout his body, completely taking over his entire being. He did not know what caused him to know this, but he decided to push his awareness outward. As he felt his chakra leaving his body and expanding, he began to see the world in a different light. Chakra was...everywhere. Everything. In the most inanimate objects were made of chakra. It was truly beautiful! Naruto could not believe it!

He decided to continue pushing his awareness outward until he ran into something...it was a person! A living, breathing person! They were literally a beacon of glowing, blue light. Their brightest points were all lined in their torso, except for a large pool in their stomach and two bright points in their head. Something about the person's chakra told him that they were benevolent, that they were just doing everyday deeds. He continued to push his awarness, finding more people and crying inwardly of joy at the beautiful sights their glowing forms brought to him. But then...he ran into something...strange.

There was a dark chakra prowling around. Like...he did not know how or why he could tell, but he knew that the chakra signature was up to know good. He continued to watch the pillar of light, following it as traveled quickly through the village. Until it just stopped at what appeared to be an open window. Inside of the structure that the man was looking at was much a small pillar of light. This pillar was completely pure and when it happened to notice the other pillar staring at it, its chakra signature flared from fear. The larger pillar went inside of the structure and threw the smaller pillar of its shoulder and started to exit.

Naruto's awareness suddenly pulled back in and he felt extremely dizzy. He had to get to...wherever it was he just saw. He jumped out of his open window, completely forgetting about his lack of a sandal. He needed to stop what was happening. Someone was getting kidnapped.

* * *

On his way to the location, Naruto ran into Konohamaru, Shizune, and Itachi. It looked like they were walking to Naruto's house in the first place, so Naruto saw that is was extremely convenient that his friends just so happened to be there. _"The Kami must be smiling down on me today."_

"Guys! Guys! We need to get help!" Naruto cried to his friends, all of them flashing him worried looks.

"What's wrong, Naruto-kun?" Shizune asked the rowdy blond.

"A kidnapping! Hyūga Clan Compound! We need to tell my dad and Hiashi-sama!" Naruto cried again, preparing to run off in the direction of the Hyūga compound. But Itachi stopped him.

"You three go off and try to stall the kidnapper. I'm the fastest of all of us, so I'll go warn Hokaga-sama and Hiashi-sama about what's going on. Be careful," Itachi told them all. With that being said, he practically disappeared, running along the roof tops to get to the Hokage Mansion.

"All right, Naruto. We'll follow you and we'll kick some ass!" Konohamaru declared, pumping his fist in the air. Shizune nodded and with that, the three of them were off, running off toward the clan compound.

* * *

Luckily for them, the kidnapper was already partially stalled by several Branch House members of the Hyūga clan, but it did not seem as if he was out breath in the slightest. When Naruto and company arrived, they were in the middle of a massacre and the man was just leaving a side entrance, the group only catching a glimpse of his back.

"Damn! Let's get him before he gets away!" Konohamaru shouted, chasing after the man.

The man seemed to have heard Konohamaru's shout, because he turned around and immediately kicked the 7 year old in the gut, promptly knocking the breath out of him. Just before the man was about to turn around, he heard a "POOF!" and realized that it was just a Shadow Clone he had kicked.

"_Darn this brat,"_ the man thought as he jumped backwards to avoid a hail of kunai. He set the struggling girl with lavender hair down, making sure her bindings were secure before drawing his sword to attack the oncoming child.

He ran lightning chakra through his sword, preparing to strike Konohamaru before a purple cloud of mist began to approach him. "Damn you brats!" the man cursed. He puffed his cheeks before spitting out a ball white air to disperse the cloud.

Once the cloud was out of the way, the man had a clear shot at attacking Shizune. He was about to leap before he heard. **"Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"**

The man leaped backwards as at least 50 shuriken came flying down toward him. His face set into grim determination as he found out where the shuriken had came from and quickly made hand seals. **"Ikazuchi no Kiba!" **he shouted. At the moment, a large stream of lightning struck out and completely obliterated a tree. Konohamaru fell out of the tree, singe marks all on his clothing.

The man saw an opening for Shizune and took it. Approaching the young girl, he noticed that she froze up once she realized that all of his attention was on her. She shakily held up an old, rusty kunai that stood no chance against his lightning-enhanced weapon. Just two feet from the girl, when the man was in perfect striking range, he swung his sword down diagonally, so that it would it take the girl at the throat. The last thing the of them expected was for a blond boy to appear before the girl, to protect her from the sword. Lightning blazing and crackling, the sword passed cleanly through the boy's left bicep and bone, completely severing the arm.

The arm fell to the ground and blood curdling scream pierced the air. Naruto was in absolute agony. His arm had just been hacked off and he was looking at his now lifeless limb, laying at the ground before his feet. He really had no idea what to do, so he tried throwing a wild and wide punch at the man. The man must have been in complete shock from Naruto suddenly appearing there because the punch was landed, hitting the man directly in the stomach. The man briefly had the air knocked out of him, but that was all of the time it took. Minato along Hiashi were standing before Naruto, Minato with a Rasengan already held in his hand. He flashed to the man and launched the small blue sphere in the man's abdomen. Blood, skin, and pieces of organ were flung around everywhere as the man was thrown back into a wall. As an extra precaution, Hiashi called for his twin brother Hizashi, who entered the area just moments after Minato and Hiashi, and told him to take the man's body to the Torture and Interrogation Force, wanting as much information out of the man as possible.

Minato was getting ready to congratulate his son for stalling the man when he noticed that something was wrong and terrible with Naruto. Naruto was on his knees, clutching at his now bloody stump and crying out. Shizune was standing beside him, a look of pure horror on her face with her hand covering her mouth. Minato paled, running over to Naruto and scooping his son into arms. He grabbed Naruto's blood arm and the two of them disappeared in a flash of yellow light. Hiashi saw the blood splattered on the ground and on Shizune's face and saw the burned body of Konohamaru.

"Come on, let's get you two to the hospital," Hiashi said to the scarred girl, picking up Konohamaru and Hinata before beginning to walk off in the direction of the hospital.

* * *

"TSUNADE! I NEED TSUNADE!" Minato screamed as loud as his frightened voice would let him. "My boy..."

Tsunade walked into the lobby and saw the bloody body of Naruto and an unattached tiny arm. The pieces fit together in her mind and acting on pure instinct, she ran over to Minato, took Naruto from him and ran into an operating room, not wanting to heal the poor boy when some many bystanders could get in the way. The door shut behind her and she immediately went to work, her hands glowing with a low green light. Sure, she knew that the Shōsen Jutsu was a little much to do over a missing limb, but she literally had no idea how much blood the boy had lost. It was a stroke of fate that Minato brought Naruto to her when he did.

Once Naruto's body stopped pouring from the wound, she went to a medicine cabinet right next to the operating bed and took a small bottle of pills, shaking it to see how much was left in it. She pulled out a dark red pill, so dark that it was almost black, and deftly placed it within Naruto's mouth, massaging the boy's throat to help him swallow. Almost instantly did the pills properties begin to work. Naruto's already pale face had taken on his original shade, showing that his blood level was back to normal. She placed a glowing green hand over Naruto's bloody stump to clean off the excess blood and grabbed a needle and thread and began to expertly stitch the boy's wound close.

About a minute later, Tsunade sat back and examined her work, nodding in approval at the now partially healed wound. She got out some ointment and began to apply it to the stump, shaking her head somberly. It was great that Naruto was alive, but now, this was truly going to hinder his progress in becoming a shinobi. She did not even know if he would be able to push through all of this and become a shinobi.

"_Let's hope,"_ Tsunade thought to herself as tears filled her eyes.

* * *

Random thoughts passed through his mind. What...how...what was going on? Broken sequences of memories, fragments of shattered flashbacks. He had no way to control all of this useless information pouring into his mind. And before he could even think about the next set of fragments or what was coming next, an extremely bright light filled his landscape. His dream played back to him as if he was actually living the life of the man in the dream.

_It has been so many years..._

_50..._

_75..._

_100..._

_The old man had lost count by now. So many years have passed since the end of the Fourth Shinobi World War. The battle was far too devastating to even think about. When the Jūbi was finally released and performed its perfect Bijūdama, the result was too much for the man to handle. He watched as all of his comrades who were in the line of devastation of the attack were instantly vaporized. Sakura, Lee, Shikamaru, and even Hinata... All were lost in that single attack. And to make matters worse, just when Sasuke finally had a change of heart, he appeared just before the man, along with Minato, Hiruzen, Hashirama, and Tobirama, but they too were destroyed. The Edo Tensei stood no match for true power. And that was all that the man had remembered of that moment. His vision began to fade and the last image he remembered seeing was of Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Obito smirking down at him._

_Sometime later, the man finally woke up, and he found himself in the middle of a village with dozens of villagers, mostly farmers. All of them were trying to keep their distance from him and he when he finally began to stir, all of those surrounding him began to scream and shout, scattering like roaches. The man tried to call out to them, to stop them, but only a weak wheeze and gurgle escaped his throat. _

_He tried pushing himself up, but quickly realized that he was lying on top of some unstable surface. He moved his head slightly to chance what he was laying upon, and he instantly regretted that action. Underneath him were dozens of bodies. Humans and animals. Men, women, and children. All of the bodies were broken and mangled and he instantly got sick to his stomach, quickly getting himself to his feet so he can get rid of whatever contents he had within his stomach away from the bodies. _

_After a good moment of heaving up solids and liquids, the man then glanced down at the puddle of vomit he produced and his face paled as he saw the tip of a finger sticking up from the puddle near his feet. With shaky hands, he reached down to see if it truly was a finger._

_Just as he was about to pick up the said finger, an elderly man came out of a hut and tossed a rock at the back of the man's head. "Leave my village, monster! Haven't you caused enough trouble?!" the man screeched at the man, before turning and running back inside of his hut. _

_The bleeding on the back of his head was forgotten as his mind focused on a solitary word the man had just used._

**Monster**

"What could I possibly have done to deserve that?!" _he thought to himself hysterically._

_But then a sequence of random, broken memories started to push their way into the man's skull._

Obito helping him to his feet, with a soft smile on his face. "Join us. Peace will follow, I assure you of this."

Trees flashing in his peripherals as he chased after a group of terrified people. When he caught up to them, he literally tore them apart and began to ingest their flesh.

Looking behind himself and seeing giant, red tails smashing buildings and whipping up giant dust clouds as his tails slammed into the ground.

Seeing a woman cower before him as she placed herself between him and her infant daughter, the young girl crying as a clawed hand reached and slapped the woman, the force of the impact causing the woman's head to turn all the way around. Slowly, he crept toward the little girl.

A long stream of fire begin sent into a giant forest. Several animals ran out, crying as the intense flames burned off their fur and proceeded to melt their skin.

Seeing the Hokage monument being crushed to debris as a giant red paw gently swatted at the stone structure, crumbling as if it was a sock.

_The man's hands were on his head as the memories assaulted him. His head was spinning as he came to the conclusion of what he actually did. There was nothing that he could do now, though. So, he did all that he could do._

_He screamed._

_A strangled scream escaped his tortured throat. Ah, such a pitiful scream. Such power and emotion was put behind it. The villagers that were listening to the scream felt an ancient part of them shiver, knowing that this was scream was of something ancient and feral. With a flash of light, the man was gone._

_For years and years, he walked the world alone, seeking the peace that he knew he had fought for for such a long time. He would take time out of his days to sit and meditate, but when he would sit in silence, his mind not focusing on searching, a beast would rise within him. It was not Kurama, since he believed Kurama to be dead. No, it was something much more terrible and great. It frightened him. It made his skin crawl and sent chills down his spine. But he had to figure out what it was. He had to. _

_For several more years, this man searched far and wide for anything that could possibly help him figure out what this...demon was that possessed him, what this thing was that caused him so much pain and agony. He searched for any population that was willing to talk to him, so he could at least gain the full story of what his actions were after the war. But no human would listen to him. All would run away in fear, screaming something about either a monster or a demon. _

_He even tried to gain entrance into his old village and upon seeing that there were no shinobi around, his heart sank. He tried to ask a random villager something but received the same reaction as all others. With nowhere left to turn, he simply left. He began to head to the West, hoping that there was someone, or something, that would finally be able to help him out in his quest for the answer._

* * *

The dream abruptly ends as a series of soft, quiet, and annoying pings enter Naruto's ears. He wanted to get up to stop whatever was making that blasted noise, but for some reason, his body felt much more heavy than it usually did. He tried to open his eyes, but quickly found that his eye lids were just as heavy as his body was.

"_Am I dead?"_ was the first thought that came to his mind, before a small sliver of light broke through his darkness, and he was finally able to take in his surroundings.

He briefly inspected the room he was laying down in. The white were a stark with white curtains. In fact, everything in the room was and light seemed to radiate off of it. Naruto was confused. He had no idea how managed to end up inside of this room and when he tried to remember the last thing he was doing, his dream was no painted vividly in his mind. The thoughts and feelings from that dream shook Naruto to his very core. He did not know how, however he felt like he personally knew all of the people that the man in the dream was grieving about. It was extremely depressing. He attempted to hit his head with left arm, though after a moment, he felt that he was not doing any hitting with his left arm. He looked over at his left arm and saw nothing amiss, as he was situated underneath a dark blue blanket, tucked in rather tightly. He threw the blanket off of him with his right and tried to get out of his bed on the left side. Just as he was about to lean over, he realized that he would not be able to support himself, but it was too late. Naruto fell out of the bed, landing on his now stump of an arm, accidentally putting all of his weight on it.

A sharp pain shot through his body and he screamed out, the pain being far too much for him to handle. He looked down and saw a small trickle of blood dripping from his now bandaged and bloody stump. He looked confused. _"Where is my arm?"_

He was about to scream out again when the doors to his room swung up revealing Tsunade standing in the entrance way, a look of fright on her face. Her eyes fell unto Naruto and they softened immediately. "What are you doing, falling out of bed and messing up your already injured self?" she scolded the boy, lifting him gently and plopping him back down onto his bed. "Look at you! You managed to re-open the wound! To think that I just left this room 15 minutes ago!" she cried, tearing off the bandages and deftly applying some new clean ones to Naruto's wound.

"Um...Bā-chan...what happened to me? Wh-where's my arm?" the boy stuttered out as he felt a stinging sensation on where his arm was _supposed _to be.

"W-well," she began shakily, "if what your father told me is true, you, Konohamaru, and Shizune managed to stall-" she was interrupted as Naruto jolted up in his bed.

"Konohamaru! Shizune! Are they all right?! Did they get hurt?! Where are they?! What about the Hyūga heiress?! Did the man get away?!" the little boy cried out, some tears springing to his eyes.

Tsunade began to shine with pride at the child in front of her. _"He has just lost an arm and the only thing he can think about are others in a better condition than he."_

"They are all fine, Naru-chan, and Hiashi-sama sends his thanks to you. Without you finding out about the kidnapping, we're afraid that the would have been far from Konoha before anyone would notice," Tsunade told the boy gently. "Now, apparently, all Minato could remember of the incident was that he arrived, killed the man, and saw you. He saw that your...arm was missing and quickly brought you here." She took a gulp of breath, obviously shaken up a bit by this boy's injury. "I had to kick both him and your mother out because I was afraid that they would have woken you up." She finished bandaging his wound and ran a glowing green palm over the stump.

"How long have I been sleeping for?" Naruto asked, innocently.

"Just two days. The first day I kept you sleeping due to your blood loss and the second day I removed the coma from you and decided that you would wake up when you wanted to." She flashed the young Namikaze a smile, before quickly standing up and walking over towards the door. She stopped, frozen in her tracks when Naruto asked her a question she was not looking forward to answering.

So quiet, to the point where most would have to strain to hear, he asked, "Bā-chan...do you think I'll still be able to become a shinobi?"

Tsunade's heart broke from the fear that was obviously evident in the boy's voice. She turned to him and shakily answered. "I honestly do not know yet, Naru-chan. But I'm sure we'll have an answer after you complete your physical therapy. I need to go. I have some other patients to attend to."

She quickly left and Naruto began to fall into a pit of depression. Losing his arm was a lot worse than he could have imagined. His future was at stake. It was his dream...no...his _destiny _to become a shinobi so that he could protect his village and family, but now, that was taken away from him. He was about to completely breakdown and cry when the door swung back open, revealing a boy short spiky hair. The boy was almost completely covered in bandages and had a splint holding up his right arm. Where the boy was not covered in bandaged, sick, thick, bubbling blisters marked his skin. The boy smiled at Naruto and waved his uninjured arm behind him. Three more children walked in, all of them surrounding Naruto's bed, except for the girl, who decided to distance herself away from the group, standing in a corner.

"Heyo! How ya holding up?" Konohamaru asked his best friend, walking over and observing the stump.

"Not so bad, now. I was...kind of upset for a bit, but you all just made it much better," Naruto told them, all smiling at them.

"It's good to see you awake, Naruto," Chōji spoke up, smiling at his first true friend.

"Haven't seen you in awhile, Chō. What have you been up to?" Naruto conversed.

"Oh, you know...just eating," the chubby boy replied, earning laughs from everyone in the room except for Shizune.

"So, you sure you're all right, Konohamaru?" Naruto asks the brown haired boy, who just looks at his boy and laughs.

"It's going to take more than a couple of burns to keep the mighty Sarutobi blood at bay!" the boy declared, pumping his fist in the air.

Itachi smiled at this and smiled at Naruto before speaking. "I have some great news for all of us." Everyone's attention shifted to the usually quiet boy. "Well, thanks to Naruto finding out about the kidnapping and me running into Chōji on the way to the Hokage Mansion during their meeting and the two of us telling Hokage-sama and Hiashi-sama, they both vouched that upon stalling the kidnapping of Lady Hinata that it would be treated as an A-Rank mission. The Hokage will pay everyone after he makes sure Naruto is all right, I'm sure." After Itachi finished that, Konohamaru and Chōji both whooped for cheer. Chōji was really lucky that Itachi just happened to run into on his way to warn the Hokage. But Itachi did almost get lost on the way to mansion and Chōji set him back on the right course...

"But that's not all. After speaking with all of our parents and guardians, Hokage-sama has decided to give us all an honorary genin rank. It pretty much just means that we won't have to attend the academy like other children, but we have to wait until we are all at least 9 before we can be placed unto a team," Itachi finished, excitement filling his voice. He reached behind his back and pulled out a leaf forehead protector matted on a black cloth. His trembling hands showed everyone in the room and loud cheers erupted from everyone (excluding Shizune).

Chōji and Konohamaru were practically bouncing off of the wall, celebrating their newly attained ranks. Naruto was bouncing up and down in his bed as excitement filled him as well. That was until his eyes finally fell onto Shizune. The girl was looking down at her feet, purposefully avoiding everyone's eyes, and especially Naruto's. Naruto motioned for his friend to stop celebrating and he pointed at Shizune. All of them shrugged as Naruto spoke up. "Is everything all right, Shizune?" he asked her, concern burning from his question.

She took a chance and glanced up into Naruto's deep eyes, and all Naruto saw from her onyx eyes was fear and shame and regret. She flinched when Naruto moved slightly and suddenly broke down into tears. Naruto tried to get up again to go and comfort his friend, but just like the first time he got he up, he fell over like a newborn foal. He cried out in surprise and was able to avoid landing on his stump. Shizune looked panicked as she ran over to Naruto and threw her arms around him, sobbing into the boy's right shoulder.

Random mutters of sorry and other gibberish that Naruto could make out to be "So ashamed" and "Will repay" escaped the young girl's mouth. Naruto tried to hug her, but awkwardly realized that he only had one arm. So, he pat Shizune's back, telling her that she had nothing to worry about, that if he was the one who froze up, he was sure that she would have done the same for him. But that did not help at all. It just made the young girl cry even. Naruto seemed to be pressed up against a wall until Tsunade came in to check on her patient and to find her missing patient, Konohamaru. She grabbed one boy by the ear, picked the other one up, and told Shizune to go and wait outside.

After everyone was situated, Tsunade stepped up to her adopted daughter and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Listen, sweetie," she began, showing a rare sweet side, "there are times during missions were people getting really hurt, but you're going to have to learn to live through all of that. I've seen my fair share of death and...wounds I couldn't stop. But if you're just going to cry every time someone gets hurt, then you're just going to be a burden to everyone around you."

Shizune looked up at her "mother" and knew that this was her way of trying to comfort her. She nodded and smiled back at the woman, who returned a smile.

"Good. Now that you understand, follow me. I have a surgery to perform and I want you to take notes, my little kunoichi."

* * *

Konohamaru managed to sneak out of his bed again and went back into Naruto's room. Yeah, he was covered in burns, but the adrenaline of performing the Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu was still running through him and he felt like he just could not sit still.

"That was pretty intense, Konohamaru," Naruto told the boy after he took a seat on the edge of Naruto's bed. "When did you learn how to do that?"

"One day, I saw jījī perform it while he was practicing his chakra control. Except he brought forth like...1000 shurkien and completely destroyed his training dummy. I asked him if he could teach me and he said that I was ready," Konohamaru smiled proudly. "I'm just glad he taught me one of his best techniques."

"Me, too. I was so amazed when I saw perform it," Naruto finished somewhat somberly.

This did not go unnoticed by Konohamaru. "What's wrong, man?"

"It's just...I'm not sure if I'll ever become a shinobi now. Even Bā-chan doesn't know if I'll be able to handle it all," Naruto told him, exasperatedly. "How am I supposed to have faith if one of the strongest shinobi in the world doesn't even know?"

"Why are you placing your destiny in someone's hands that aren't yours?" Konohamaru asked the boy, getting to his feet. "I remember when I was young, my mother was trying to get me started with shinobi training. She was a great sensory type and she would look over me as I practiced bringing out my chakra. But every time she looked for my chakra, there was none there. She told me, almost certainly, that I would never become a shinobi and that I was a disgrace to the Sarutobi family."

Naruto looked up at his friend with hurt eyes. He had no idea that that was the reason his best friend was living with jījī.

"She gave me away, or rather, she just left me there in my room one night. Both her and my father had left while I was sleeping and left nothing behind except the bed I was sleeping in and the blanket that kept me warm. There was no note, not a single scrap of food, nothing. I was almost certain that I would die there, being so young and not able to fend for myself. That was until I found out what the real problem was.

"It was not me. It was my mother. She was one of those power hungry types that only see things for what they could do for yourself. I set down a new resolve to find my chakra, to bring it forth, and to prove her wrong. I vowed to not let anyone get put down the same way I was put down. I will become the strongest shinobi and protects those that I love! That is my nindō!" Konohamaru finished triumphantly, standing with his arm outstretched and pointing at Naruto. "Now, don't you let anyone put down and tell you that you can't become a shinobi! Only you are in control of your destiny!"

Naruto got out of his bed, perfectly without any fault and stood at his full height in front of Konohamaru. A deep pool of inspiration and awe filled him and he felt like he was on the verge of crying, but he decided to hold it back. He swung out his right arm, Konohamaru doing the same thing. They both clasped each others forearm, locking the warrior's shake into place. They both had a look of determination in their eyes as Konohamaru broke the shake.

"Now, get some rest. Jījī and I will convince your parents to teach you some _real _stuff once you're out of here," Konohamaru told Naruto, waving at him while walking out of the door.

Naruto climbed back into his bed and pulled the sheets over his body to the best of his abilities. Once he was settled he looked up at the ceiling with determination and power shining from his eyes.

_I WILL NOT GIVE UP _

Jutsu List

******Fūin! - Seal!**

******Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! - Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!**

******Ikazuchi no Kiba! - Fang(s) of Lightning**


	4. Chapter 4

Hello, all! This is a rather short information chapter. You just learn about all of the kids' affinities and whatnot. As usual, all criticism is welcome. Enjoy the read!

_Chapter 4_

His mind was dark again. He must have fallen asleep again. He tried to move with his eyes closed, but quickly found out that something was resting on his body. Something heavy. It was placing pressure on a majority of his body and he could feel...whatever it was moving around. Not in a specific pattern, but erratically. He cracked open his eyes to see what exactly was going on in his hospital room and saw his mother laying on top of red head was sobbing uncontrollably, her body convulsing due to her sobbing and moaning.

This was one of the major things she truly feared. One of her baby's was hurt and literally lost a part of himself, and she did not know what to do. Except for to cry and to be there for him whenever he woke up. Sure, her husband was trying to comfort her by awkwardly rubbing her back, but that was not literally doing anything for the poor woman! So, she just continued to cry, hoping that her son would be waking up anytime now. Tsunade had told the terrified mother that Naruto was doing just fine, but she really would not believe it until she saw it.

Naruto looks on at the sight before him a little uneasily. He could never really handle people crying. He remembered at all of his birthdays when his mom would just start crying for what looked like no reason and he tried to sneak out of the room but was grabbed and wrapped in a bear hug. He prepared for the worst. Or he thought he had. He looked up and locked eyes with his father, who suddenly got a mischievous glint in his eye as he looked at Naruto. Naruto started to shake his head, but he was too late, as his father was already bending down to tell his grieving wife that her first born was now awake.

Kushina stops sobbing briefly and looks up into Naruto's eyes. The emotions conveyed from her face and eyes almost shattered Naruto's heart. Love was evident, beaming at him through his mother's deep blue eyes. Mixed in with the love was misery, horror, and shame. And fear. She was afraid of what might have happened. Naruto cracked a small smile at his mother, but that seemed to have tipped her over the edge because she began to sob again. Except this time she was actually hugging her son and planting kisses all over his face. Tears and saliva from Kushina's sloppy kisses coated Naruto's face and he was trying to back out of his mother's affections. Not only was his face slick, but he started to fell a pain where his left arm once was. He noticed that his mom kept pressing into it roughly, but the pain was bearable so he decided to endure the rest of her assault of kisses.

Naruto tries to look for his father, but when he does see him, the blond Hokage has a look of amusement etched into his face. Naruto looks at him with pleading eyes that clearly scream, "Make her stop!" and the older man just straightens his and places a gentle smile on. He holds up his index finger, indicating he only has to endure one more minute of all of this excessive attention.

After the said minute was over, Minato intervened, stopping the barrage. He gently pulled Kushina away from their son and she reluctantly let go. "Why don't you take Akiko and the two of you get some fresh air, get some time to collect yourself. I need to talk to Naruto, father to son," he tells his wife, holding her in his arms. She shakily nods her head and walks over to a Akiko who was busy dozing off in a chair. She picked up the little girl and slowly walked out of the room, rushing out a bunch of "I love you"s to her son before the door closed behind her.

Minato lets out a long sigh as he can still hear Kushina sobbing on the opposite side of the door. "Don't worry about your mom. She was a little hectic earlier because Tsunade wouldn't let her in. You should've seen it," Minato said, "Kushina looked as if she was ready to punch Tsunade a good time in the face." Minato chuckled at this, but quickly sobered up when he saw Naruto's somewhat distant expression.

"Naruto?"

Naruto looked up at his father. "What's up, Tō-san?"

Minato grabs a wooden chair and pulls up to the side of Naruto's bed and sits in it, staring at his son. "I just want you to know," Minato starts, "that I'm very, very proud of you. You placed yourself before a comrade and, because of your actions, you have saved two lives at the cost of a limb. I'm sure both Shizune and Hiashi-sama are both eternally grateful for your selfless actions. I do not know of many people that would take a sword for a friend with hesitation. And even though it was an extremely noble act, there is a high chance that it has ruined the chances of you having a career as a shinobi." Naruto frowned at this, but quickly laughed at it, getting a strange look from Minato.

Naruto sat up in his bed. "I realized earlier that no matter what anyone says to me, that I am the one who is control of my destiny. I will stand tall in the face of adversary. Even if my acts continue to cause harm to myself, I will always find a way to protect the ones I care about."

Minato nods at Naruto, approving of what he just relayed to him. He quickly got serious, though. "Are you sure you wish to become a shinobi, Naruto?"

Naruto had a look of disbelief on his face and had his mouth open, ready to retort.

"Don't answer without hesitation! I want you to think about this, Naruto. Do you really wish to become a shinobi?"

Naruto looked at his father again and realized that his father was asking him to actually think about it not as a father, but as a fellow shinobi. So, Naruto sat and thought about it for a minute, feeling the glaring eyes of Minato burn through him as he was looking away. When Naruto felt like he had enough, he finally declared, "One arm or no arms, I _WILL _become the strongest shinobi! To protect the village and my family, no matter what the handicaps are, I will achieve my goals. My destiny is to become a shinobi. That is my nindō!" Naruto finished with his right hand in front of him, balled up in a fist.

Minato smiled broadly and proudly at his son. He reaches behind his back and pulls out a small brown box that was around 12 inches. The cloth the box was made from was faded and stained, showing that the box had some real age to it. He held out the box in front of him, gesturing for Naruto to take it. "Then as the Yondaime Hokage, I, Namikaze Minato, present you, Namikaze Naruto, with your certificate of promotion from Academy Student to Genin." Naruto looked at him a little confused before Minato said. "Just standard procedure. Academy Student or not, I congratulate you on becoming a Genin, Naruto."

Naruto stills looks a bit confused as he takes the box from his father and places it onto his lap. He opens it and he stops, shock and excitement running through at the same time. Within the brown box was a forehead protector that was matted onto a deep red cloth. The symbol obviously belong to Konoha, but the spiral that made up must of the leaf was more pronounced, having more rings than were normal. At the very top of the metal, just to the right and left of the leaf were two horns, reminding Naruto of Ero-sennin. He looked on in wonder as Minato started to talk again.

"This is your mother's original headband that she received from her father, just before she had to leave her birth place to come here. It was when...the village was still around and Konoha and Uzu had the strongest alliance. You can tell by the obvious spiral on the leaf. This belonged to her father and his mother. The appearance and random additions to the metal would show how much of a warrior you were with Uzushiogakure. Because your mother's grandma was one of the best fighters the village had and the first female Kage the village had, she was given the title _Shio no Akuma_ and her son held the title after her. We are pretty sure that your mother would have it, knowing how she gets when she is angry," Minato joked. "They passed it down and we were hoping to do the same for you. We wanted you to have this one, hers, and Kushina would give Akiko mine when she graduates the Academy. So, take this, Naruto. Congratulations."

Minato stood up and walked over to Naruto. He removed the forehead protector from the box and began to gently place it onto his son's head. Once tied, the horns pushed some of Naruto's short bangs out of the way. Minato stepped back to get a good look at his son, when Naruto's right hand rose up, trembling and gently brushing against the metal of his forehead protector. This way too overwhelming. He did not think that he would get a forehead protector and a rank up just for getting his arm loped off. Tears were brimming on his eye lid as he looked up at his father who was beaming with pride.

"I hate to do this, but your mother would kill me if I did not take any pictures for her." He pulled a camera out of his cloak and quickly took a few pictures of Naruto, still look star-struck. "Oh, and since you all did complete an A-Rank mission," Minato started, placing his camera back in his cloak and withdrawing a fat little frog wallet, "one that was borderline S-Rank, I have paid all of your friends and you as well." He tossed Gama-chan to Naruto who was weighing his new friend in his right hand. "850,000 ryō as the main reward for completing your mission. Now, if you want to sit tight for awhile, I have some official business to take care of. I'll be back with something special for you to do soon."

He kissed the top of his son's head and disappeared in a flash of yellow light, no trace of the man left in Naruto's room. Naruto looked around his room and noticed that it was blurry. He touched his cheek beneath his eye and was confused for a second.

"_Huh? When did I start crying?"_

He decided that he needed to get up and show off his new headband to Tsunade and Konohamaru and anyone else he could find, really. He rolled off of the side of his bed, preparing to leave to go find someone to bother when his door creaked open again, Konohamaru peaking in. The young boy smiled at Naruto and walked to him, sitting down in the empty chair beside his bed while Naruto sat back down on his bed, smiling at his best friend.

"I see your dad gave you a forehead protector," Konohamaru pointed out, looking at Naruto's new piece of apparel. "It looks much better than the one jījī gave me!" He pointed at his forehead, revealing a standard forehead protector matted on black cloth. The metal had several scratches and dents in it, showing that it had been through many battles.

"I think yours is pretty cool. I'm pretty sure jījī did a lot with that forehead protector, going into wars and whatnot," Naruto told his friend. "So, what brings you around again?"

"I'm bored in my room. There's nothing in there except for a bowl of plastic fruit. Don't try to eat the fruit, by the way."

They both shared a chuckle and started to talk about shinobi training, asking each other random things until they got to nature manipulation.

"So, what affinity do you think you'll have?" Konohamaru asked, leaning back in his chair.

"I honestly don't know. I think it would be pretty cool to have Katon, but I really have no idea what I'll get. I think Kā-san is Suiton and Tō-san is Raiton," Naruto told him, looking confused. "What about you?"

"Well, for uncountable generations, the Sarutobi clan has had a strong Katon affinity, so I would be happy with that," Konohamaru replied. He was about to ask something else when a bright yellow flash appeared in the room, causing Konohamaru to fall out of chair in surprise.

Minato was standing in front of Naruto's bed, looking down at the burning and bandaged boy getting back to his feet and grumbling about something. "I have something for you and your friends, Naruto."

Minato reached into his pocket and pulled out five small squares of tan paper and handed them all over to Naruto. Naruto looked at the fronts and backs of each square before looking at his dad with a questioning look. He smiled and said, "Those pieces of paper are made from a special tree called a Chakuratsurī. They are special trees that are grown and fed with chakra. These pieces of paper actually show you what your nature affinity will be."

Naruto and Konohamaru looked excited. Sure, Konohamaru had a high chance that he would have a Katon affinity, but it would still be fun to find out. Naruto held out the first piece of paper and just stared at it. He did not know how to find out what his affinity was.

"Um...Tō-san, what do I do?" Naruto asked.

"Oh! All you have to do is channel some of your chakra through the paper. Depending on your chakra type, the paper will react to it," he told his son. "If it turns into ash, it's Katon. If it splits, Fūton. If it wrinkles, Raiton. If it turns to dirt and crumbles, Doton. And if it gets damp, Suiton." Minato pulled another piece of paper from his pocket and demonstrated to Naruto and Konohamaru the appearance. After a second, the paper immediately wrinkled up, showing that Minato had a Raiton affinity. "Now, you give it a try."

Naruto held up a piece of paper and closed his, allowing his chakra to channel through it. He heard a gasp and opened his eyes. He looked at his father who had a surprised look on his face. He looked down at the piece paper in his hand and saw that it had been cleanly split into two pieces, but the right side of the paper was crumbled, but still stable. Minato nodded with pride at his.

"Two natures! You have Fūton and Doton! This is marvelous!" Minato exclaimed, clearly more excited than the two boys in the room. He quickly calmed down and said, "Now, give one of the papers to Konohamaru."

Naruto handed one over, but as soon as the paper touched Konohamaru's finger, it ignited and fell to the floor as a pile of ash. Konohamaru looked surprised and flinched away as one of the flames licked his finger, but he realized that no damage was done.

"Such a strong Katon affinity. You didn't even have to channel your chakra," Minato said out loud, clearly awe-struck. "Now then, I think the rest of your friends are in the hospital, so I'll go find them and we can test out their affinities once I get back." Minato disappeared in a flash of yellow light.

Naruto looked over to Konohamaru, who was smiling brightly and he leaned over to drop his paper into the trash to the right of his bed. But just before the paper left his hand, more effects happened to it. The crumbled side quickly got wet, causing the crumbled pieces to fall through his fingers and the left side, which was perfect, suddenly burst into yellow-red flames. Naruto dropped the ashes into the trash and looked down at it, shocked by what just happened.

"_What does it mean?"_

He was about to ask Konohamaru something when the same flash of light came back, revealing Minato, Shizune, Chōji, and Itachi. "Now, give them all their paper, Naru-chan." Minato smiled at his son, excited to watch his friends discover their future talents.

Each one of them grabbed the paper and held it up in front of them with their eyes closed, moving their chakra from their bodies to the paper. Their papers reacted simultaneously. Shizune's split into two, indicating Fūton, Itachi's was separated, the left side was damp and the right side fell into ash, indicating both Suiton and Katon ("Another double affinity!" Minato exclaimed). But Chōji's was rather strange. His did not have any of the normal properties. No. Chōji's instantly became extremely heavy and he dropped, hearing a loud clang come from the paper, causing a couple of cracks to appear in the porcelain tile. Minato looked at the piece of paper and picked it up, obviously struggling in the act. He flipped the paper over and let the shine off of it, showing that the paper now had some shiny, metallic covering.

"_What the?"_ he thought to himself and pocketed the paper, deciding to look into it further. "Well, all of you are extraordinary." He glanced at the clock and realized that a meeting between an ambassador from Kirigakure was about to happen. "Ah, I happen to have a meeting, so I'll see you all around. You have the Hokage's say-so to being practicing nature manipulation." With that being said, Minato simply vanished in his trademark flash.

* * *

In a deep underground cave...

A man shrouded in darkness and sitting upon a throne had a telescope on a tray in front of him as he watched events transpire within a certain room of the Konohagakure Hospital.

"Interesting. Very interesting," the man said, his voice deep and grating. "I did not expect to see the effects so soon in the boy. He is beginning to look much more promising."


	5. Chapter 5

Hello, all! Here is the next installment in Rise of the Kami! This is just a simple chapter, showing some of the characters' progress in their training. And so far, Naruto has an affinity for all natures except for lightning. As of right now, the only people with a lightning affinity is Minato and Kakashi (without being show). Hope that answers your question, SSJ3 Kyuubi Gohan. Remember, all criticism is welcome. Enjoy the read!

_Chapter 5_

Naruto was released, reluctantly, from the Konohagakure Hospital after Tsunade completed a weeks worth of physical therapy. They boy still showed some signs of being unbalanced while he walked and adjusting his weight properly while turning, but other than that, he was fine. Such a speedy recovery was due to his will and being cooped up within a hospital room was not doing the boy any good, anyway. He was more trouble than good, always sneaking out for ramen and causing the busty medical-nin to get stressed whenever she found her patient missing. But now, after a week...well...just read on.

A week is a long time to a shinobi who is training. So much could get done in a week that the possibilities were limitless. And that was especially so for 7 year old Naruto Namikaze. Almost as soon as the boy got out of the hospital did his father practically abduct him, telling him that he was extremely excited to train his son.

The father and son were both sitting in a half lotus position on top of the Hokage Mansion, the two of them facing each other. Minato placed his right hand on the space of tile between them and a small summoning circle appeared. After a brief flash of dull, white light, a scroll appeared. Minato unrolled the scroll and looked at Naruto.

"This is a scroll for some basic techniques that I want you to get down," he told his son, pointing at a three certain spots on the scroll. "These are the graduation requirements for each shinobi at the Academy. So, in a week, I want you to have mastered all of the graduation jutsus by next week. And also, there are some...more difficult techniques in this scroll and if you think you can, try to learn those as well. But _only _after you learn Kawarimi no Jutsu, Henge no Jutsu, and Bunshin no Jutsu. I'm sure all of these techniques will be too easy for you to master." Minato smiled down at his son and stood up, preparing to Hiraishin back into his office.

"Tō-san, how am I supposed to perform jutsus with only one hand?" Naruto asked his father, his faith faltering a bit.

Minato looked out into the distance for a moment before an idea struck him. "Well, there are two men in this village who are masters of performing with only one hand. I'm pretty Sarutobi-sama could help you in that department, since I'm lacking." He smiled at his son. "Now, go train! Have fun." Minato disappeared in a flash of yellow light, leaving Naruto alone.

The boy stood up, sighing. He picked up the scroll that his father left him and leaped off of the Hokage Mansion, making his towards the Sarutobi Clan Compound.

* * *

"Huah!" Konohamaru grunted out, aiming a punch at his grandfather's midsection. The old man struck out with his palm, hitting Konohamaru right below his shoulder. Konohamaru's arm instantly went limp and he jumped up, trying to kick his grandfather in his throat. With the same hand. Hiruzen grabbed the boy's ankle, applying pressure. The boy's foot went limp and when he fell back to the ground he fell over, off balance.

Hiruzen quickly pressed a point on the boy's shoulder and on his knee, Konohamaru getting the feelings in his previously paralyzed limbs back. "You are getting much better," Hiruzen told his grandson, helping him to his feet. "You will be a fine shinobi." Hiruzen was about to tell Konohamaru to try again until he felt a chakra spike approaching his training ground. The chakra was excited and...nervous? But before he could ponder too long on it, Naruto appeared before him, panting from running all of the way from the Hokage Mansion. "Ah, Naruto, it's good to see you. What can I do for you?"

"Jījī," Naruto wheezed out, doubling over to catch his breath. "Tō-san told me that * wheeze * you are a master of * wheeze* single hand seals. I need you to train me."

Hiruzen looked down at the boy with a critical eye, analyzing his intent. Single hand seals were not something to mess around with. One wrong finger placement could end terribly, the jutsu might even back firing. There was a reason that people used to hand seals to form a perfect seal. Both hands stabilized the chakra to perfection.

"Are you sure, Naruto? Single hand seal training is not something to tread lightly," he told the boy, eyeing him up and down.

Naruto just nodded as he was still catching his breath. "I have to do this, jījī, if I am to become a better shinobi than Tō-san."

Hiruzen smiled at the boy and took a seat, situating himself in a half lotus position. He motioned for both Naruto and Konohamaru to join him and both boys did.

"Now, then," Hiruzen started, "single hand seals were the application through which jutsus could be performed long ago. Back in those times, you needed a great deal of luck to get the chakra balance just perfect to execute whatever it is you were trying to accomplish. If there was any sort of unbalance in chakra levels, then your jutsus could backfire right into your face. And depending on what you were trying to use, it would not be pretty.

"Now, then, usually only masters of chakra control can perform single hand seals perfectly, but in Naruto's case, this will be a necessity. As for you, Konohamaru, this will be beneficial to you. If you both can get this down, then you'll have an upper hand in battle. Your opponent will not know what technique you are trying to use due to them not having knowledge of single hand seals and if you are going against a Sharingan user, chances are you'll come out on top, due to them now being able to follow," Hiruzen smiled at the boys, remembering his Chūnin exam victory against Kagami Uchiha.

"Now then, first, you need to learn how to pull out chakra with only one hand with out over drawing it."

Hiruzen closed his eyes held out his right hand, making a half ram seal before going completely still. Instantly, a small aura of blue surrounded the old man and Naruto and Konohamaru looked on in wonder as they saw their jījī perform this effortlessly. He opened his eyes and the aura faded. "Now, you try," he instructed to the two boys in front of him. They both nodded once before a look of determination came onto their faces.

They both mimicked the same movements as the old man, both closing their eyes and raising their right hands to make a half ram seal. Naruto's surroundings faded away and was replaced with an impenetrable darkness now covering his landscape. He began his usual journey to look for his the large sea of blue light that seemed to swim away from him every time he came here. He was just getting ready to give up hope until he saw it. It looked much larger than usual. Naruto mentally shrugged and reached out for the chakra, the chakra quickly striking out and attaching to his invisible arm. Naruto had to pull back, feeling the force and power of his chakra trying to overtake him. He applied his own force to the chakra and, glacially, the chakra slowed down to its normal speed, pleasing Naruto. He reached out again and the chakra snaked its way lazily to Naruto's mental arm. He opened his eyes and looked to his left, seeing Konohamaru sprawled out on the ground and unconscious, the signs of over drawing chakra. He looked back to Hiruzen, who was looking back at the with an impressed look on his face.

"Good job, Naruto!" he said to the boy, clapping his hand on his shoulder. "Now then, I want you to channel a little bit of your chakra onto your hand and pass it into Konohamaru. His reserves are exhausted and if you put some of your chakra into him, it will gets his system back into motion."

Naruto looked down at his hand and told his chakra to move to his hand and it did. A blue aura was now surrounding his hand and he looked at it, amazed at his new abilities. He moved his hand over to Konohamaru and placed it on the boy's calf, immediately gaining a reaction. Konohamaru shot up with his hair sticking out in all kinds of odd directions, as if he had just been electrocuted. Hiruzen and Naruto both shared a laugh at Konohamaru's new look, until Hiruzen got back into sensei mode.

"Konohamaru, I want you to practice that some other time," Hiruzen told his grandson. "Your chakra reserves are going to be exhausted, so just sit back and watch. Now, for a simple exercise, we're going to perform a harmless jutsu that has no repercussions if executed poorly. We are going to use the Bunshin no Jutsu."

Naruto was really excited now, barely able to sit still. Not only was he now able to mold his chakra with only one hand, but he was about to knock out one of his required jutsus. Today was a good day. Hiruzen quickly performed three single hand seals with his right hand, ending in the right side of the tiger seal. **"Bunshin no Jutsu!"**

A carbon copy of Hiruzen appeared right next to him and was quickly dispelled as Hiruzen made another half ram seal. "Now, let me teach you the hand seals and you can try it for yourself. The first is the ram seal, which you know," Hiruzen told Naruto, showing the hand sign. "The next is the snake seal. And the last is the tiger seal. You must be careful when using the tiger and ram seals. The only noticeable difference is that your ring finger will not be flat against your palm, but slightly elevated. Now, you try."

Naruto sighed out of nervousness as his right hand started to shake uncontrollably. He clenched his hand into a fist to calm his nervous. His right became a short flurry before he shouted, **"Bunshin no Jutsu!"**

7 perfect Naruto's appeared sitting around the original, all of them looking the exact same. Naruto looked around in surprise, as did Hiruzen and Konohamaru. Naruto made a half ram seal and the clones all disappeared.

"That was awesome, Naruto!" Konohamaru exclaimed, getting to his feet and clapping for his best friend. "You did the Bunshin no Jutsu perfectly on your first try!"

Naruto blushed from the attention and pulled out the scroll that his father had given him earlier. "Hey, jījī, can you help me with these other jutsus Tō-san asked me to get down? I want to start moving on to other techniques."

"Of course I can. I would love to," Hiruzen smiled down at his surrogate grandson. "Konohamaru, would you like some training with Kawarimi no Jutsu and Henge no Jutsu, or do you want to practice your Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu?"

"I think I'll practice my Shurkien Kage Bunshin. Once you two are done, you should train us in nature manipulation," Konohamaru told his grandfather, walking off to one of the training dummies and pulling out a shuriken.

* * *

Not even 15 minutes later and Naruto had the other jutsus down to the point that all Chūnin instructors at the Academy would be extremely impressed. And, as promised, Hiruzen called Konohamaru over after Naruto finished performing the Kawarimi 10 times perfectly so that he could begin teaching them the basics of nature manipulation.

"Now, I'm sure that the both of you learned your affinities, am I correct?" Hiruzen asked his grandchildren, both of them nodding simultaneously. "Good! What are your affinities?"

"Well, I'm a Fūton and Doton, while Konohamaru is a Katon," Naruto answered, completely forgetting what had happened to his paper.

"Oh, two affinities, eh? Pretty amazing, Naruto. Give me a moment." Hiruzen stood up and left his training ground to look for something that would help the two children. He returned a moment later with a pile of leaves and a couple of sticks. "For Naruto, I'm going to have you start with your Fūton training. The key to this is to channel Fūton chakra through your hand and summon it out, slicing the leaf cleanly in the process." Hiruzen picked up a leaf and held it in hands for a second before showing Naruto the same leaf, sliced perfectly down the middle.

Naruto then picked up a leaf and looked confused. "Hey, how exactly do you bring forth Fūton chakra?"

"Oh, right," the old man chuckled, forgetting that Naruto was almost completely clueless to the workings of chakra. Hiruzen gets into his Shinobi no Kami mode and starts to explain to Naruto the properties of Fūton chakra. "To pull out your Fūton chakra, you must feel the air around you. Feel the swirling and gentle pressures of the air as it all pushes against you. Feel the push, but do not push back. Air is a free flowing force that simply goes with the flow. You must flow it. Feel the caresses of the breeze flow through your body. And when you feel like you are one with the wind, begin to draw your chakra out." Naruto nodded at the old man and grabbed a leaf from the pile and held it in his right hand, curving his fingers over it so it was sort of like a canopy. He closes his eyes and focuses on what his jījī just told him.

Hiruzen then picks up a stick and tells Konohamaru to follow him a bit away. He tells Konohamaru to sit down, and just when he hands him the stick and is about to tell him how to draw forth Katon chakra, he hears a whine come from Naruto.

"Aw, man! It didn't even cut it all the way through! This is hard!" Naruto complained, but Hiruzen was scared impressed. Never before had he seen someone get Fūton down so quickly, not even from his old rival, Danzō.

"Naruto, I will teach you the second exercise if you can finely chop, slice, and mince all of those leaves I've laid out for you," Hiruzen told the boy before turning back to Konohamaru. "Now, my boy, tell me what you know about fire? And I don't mean Katon, but actual fire."

Konohamaru sat there for a moment, really thinking about this. The only true things he had seen fire accomplish were destruction. "Is fire a mainly destructive force of nature? I remembering seeing someone training not too long ago and they accidentally lit up a part of the great forest."

"Ah, you must be referring to Shisui Uchiha," Hiruzen told the boy, smiling at him. "Yes, fire as an extremely destructive force of nature, but it is not always so. Take for instance the Great Plains to the south of Hi no Kuni. Almost every year, a great fire sweeps the plains, destroying several plants. But these plants are highly destructive, so the fire gets rid of them so that beneficial plants can grow in their place."

"So...fire is destructive to...help other things come about?" Konohamaru answered, confused, earning a chuckle from Hiruzen.

"Something like that. Now, when you look at fire, what do you see?"

Konohamaru began to think again about this, but nothing came to his mind. He shrugged his shoulders and Hiruzen answered. "Fire is energy. Fire is life. When left to its own devices, fire will consume all on its path. But when the right person comes along, fire will bend and bow to its true master. And thus, Katon is one of the harder nature types to use properly. Unlike other nature types, you will not be simply directing the fire, but you must completely control it. One wrong move and burns worse than you received during the kidnapping will plague your body," Hiruzen finished, receiving a gulp from Konohamaru.

"Now then, to draw upon fire, you must feel the energy within yourself, within your sea of chakra," Hiruzen told him, pointing to his stomach. "That is where most of the chakra and energy you possess belongs. What you need to do is to manipulate that energy. You must knead it with the natural energy within your body to heat up your chakra and once the chakra begins to "boil", you can then expel it from your body. Let me demonstrate."

Hiruzen then picked up a stick and began to channel his Katon chakra to the surface, moving all of it to his hands. Immediately, the stick burst into flames and some of the bark that was still on the stick began to melt away. "This is what your stick should look like once you have a complete mastery of Katon, but I don't expect it to happen so soon. Hard work and determination will get you there. Now, begin."

Hiruzen did not realize that Naruto had stopped his exercise and was listening intently on how to draw forth Katon chakra. He had just remembered what had happened to his paper and decided that he needed to learn it on his own time, so he pushed the exercise to back of his head and went back to his task at hand, chopping up leaves.

* * *

About two hours later, both Konohamaru and Naruto were exhausted. They had been working nonstop on their exercises, almost completely depleting their chakra reserves. Naruto had about 20 of the leaves from the pile, sliced up into perfect portions and then chopped into small squares. Even though that was a bit much, he still had around 50 of the leaves left. His reserves were going to be extremely sore. Konohamaru, on the other hands, was making great progress on his stick. About a fifth of it was gone, falling as ash onto the boy's pants while the rest of the stick had several scorch marks running up and down its length, all varying in size. Sure, the boy was proud of his work, but he still had another five sticks to go. Hiruzen was watching the two boys train for the last two hours, not giving them any more help since they did not ask for any. He could already see the signs of a rivalry forming between the two and that only made the old man happier, knowing that the two friends would continue to push each other's limits until they had no limits. The previous Hokage cleared his throat, catching the boys' attention. Both of them climbed shakily to their feet as they walked over and stood before Hiruzen.

He looks down at them with an impressed eye. He knows that they will both be forces to reckon with once they both get older and master everything. "It's getting pretty late and you two have been working for awhile, now. How about a break?" Hiruzen suggested and turned around, walking back into his house.

Konohamaru and Naruto both followed Hiruzen inside, both of their bodies aching in ways they did not know existed. Once the entered the dining room they both stopped and stared in shock at what was laid out before them. It was practically a feast on the unnecessarily long table. At least 30 pots were sitting on the table, each one having a lid on it but steam rising from underneath. There were several bowls of fruits and vegetables and salads. The aroma of all of the food was overwhelming and Naruto and Konohamaru did not know if they would be able to handle theirselves much longer. "In most of the pots are stews and soups, while some of them are just containers for roasted meats," Hiruzen told them, walking over to a large teapot and pouring out three cups. "I don't want you two to just fill up on meats. You have to have some fruits and vegetables in your diet. If you are going to train like a warrior, then you shall eat like a warrior. And this is chakra replenishing food, so dig in."

The two boys ran to the table and grabbed a couple of plates and began to pile food onto them. Once they both had a good helping of everything on their plates, the two boys sat down and began to ravenously tear into their food. Hiruzen looked on amused at the boys, because even though several disgusting noises came from them, they were not messy. He placed down a cup of tea in front of both of the boys, but they did not seem to take any notice of it. Hiruzen prepared his own plate and bowl, grabbing a large amount of bananas, grapes, and spiced apple slices. In his bowl was a small portion of his beef stew and he had a small cut of roast pork shoulder. Just as soon as he down and was preparing to dig into his this exquisite smelling food, there was a knock at his front door. Sighing, the old man got off of his tatami and walked to the door, hoping that whoever was disturbing his meal was someone important.

Opening the door revealed a young woman with black, untamed hair that looked like she just finished running through a forest. Her eyes were really fascinating, being a deep red, but with an extra ring in them. Hiruzen sighed, almost certain he knew what the young woman wanted. "Ah, Kurenai, what can I do for you?"

She looked a little angry, but he could tell that it was not directed at him. "Have you seen your son recently? I have to...talk to him about something," she replied, having an evil glint in her eye.

"No, I don't think Asuma has been home all day, but if you wish, you are welcome to wait for him here. I'm sure he'll be returning rather soon," Hiruzen told the young woman, opening up the door wide enough for her to move past him and enter the dining room.

Upon entering, Kurenai let out a whistle as she took in the sight of all of the food laid out on the table. She looked on in amusement as both Naruto and Konohamaru reached out for a bowl of fruit and vegetables. _"I never knew kids like healthy food so much."_

She sat down on an empty tatami and started to put some food onto her plate. She begins to eat once Hiruzen enters the room. He sits down again, glad that his food is still there, untouched. He grabs a piece of the pork shoulder, preparing to place it into his mouth with his chopsticks when there is another knock at the door. He slams his chopsticks down, quickly got up, and walked to the door, hoping that Kami would have mercy on whatever soul he was preparing to tear apart.

When he swung open the door, the first thing he saw was a little girl with shoulder length blond hair. She had a couple of whisker marks on her cheeks and the most vibrant blue eyes anyone had seen. He looked up and saw both Minato and Kushina, each one of them holding one of her hands. His angry went away as he saw little Akiko smile up at him.

"Sorry to bother you so late, Hiruzen-sama," Minato started, "but we were wondering if Naruto was still over here?"

"We were about to have some dinner, but realized the goofball wasn't there," Kushina told the old man, smiling at him.

"Goofball! Goofball!" Akiko cried, giggling a bit.

"Ah, yes, he's inside. If you would like, the three of you can join us for dinner as well," Hiruzen told them, opening his door wider.

"Oh, are you sure? We don't want to intrude," Minato told his predecessor. "Akiko can eat almost as much as Naruto."

"Not to worry," Hiruzen told him, ushering the family in. "I've made enough food to fill up Chōza and Chiharu."

All three adults laughed as they all walked into the Sarutobi Clan Compound.

Somewhere in Konohagakure at the Akimich Clan Compound, the clan leader sneezed and his wife followed suit.

Hiruzen was really excited now, sitting down and preparing to eat when he heard the door open. He looked up from his plate of food and saw Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Shizune all walking in. "Yo, sensei!" Jiraiya called out, preparing to sit down onto a tatami. That was until Sarutobi threw a chopstick at his former student, hit the white-haired man directly between the eyes and causing him to fly backwards.

"What do you think you are doing, gaki?! Didn't anyone teach you to knock before entering someone's house?!" Hiruzen shouted at the man, completely livid.

"Oooow, sensei, what was that for?" Jiraiya asked, holding his now bleeding face.

"You never learn, huh. Oh, well, sit down and eat, all of you."

Tonight was not Hiruzen's night. He typical did not have any guest over unless it was Kurenai or Naruto, but when she usually came over, Asuma answered and Naruto just walked right in. The boy was just too cute to get mad at. Hiruzen was finally able to taste his roasted pork shoulder and it was some of the best food he had eaten in a long while. Just as soon as he was about to eat a grape he heard the door creak open again. He prepared himself to throw another chopstick, but he saw his son walk in with two other guests, Itachi and Chōji. Both of the boys ran over to where Naruto and Konohamaru, sitting in between them, since to Naruto's right was his sister and to Konohamaru's left was Shizune. Asuma walked up to his dead. "Hey, pops, I need to talk to you about something."

"Anything, my son."

He pulled out a letter from the front of his flak jacket and handed it over to his father. His father flipped it over and saw the symbol on the front. It was the symbol of the Hi no Kuni, the kanji for fire. He knew that this letter came from the Daimyō and he was instantly filled with pride after knowing the contents of the letter without even reading them. "You wish to join the Shugonin Jūnishi?"

Asuma nodded without hesitation and Hiruzen stood up to hug his son. "I am honored to be your father," he told him, emotion filling his voice. Asuma returned the hug and the sight caused everyone's hearts to melt, even Kurenai's, the young woman completely forgetting about her earlier anger with her boyfriend.

* * *

The rest of the dinner passed rather pleasantly, with great and friendly conversation. Minato told everyone how the civil wars in Kirigakure had finished just yesterday and that a new Mizukage was already chosen, Minato having known her in the past. He also told them that the woman's first act as Mizukage was to get rid of the graduation ritual of the Academy, which Hiruzen was extremely happy about.

Naruto then told his father that he had mastered all academy techniques and that Hiruzen had started to teach him Shuriken Kage Bunshin, Kage Bunshin, and nature manipulation. Minato looked really pleased when he heard that Naruto was already able to slice a leaf so precisely and congratulated his son, promising him 5 bowls of ramen. Kushina did not look very happy, though, not really wanting her son to start training at all. Ever since his arm loss, Kushina has wanted to keep her on Naruto at all times, thinking that boy was too fragile.

Shizune, Itachi, and Chōji also told everyone that their parents and guardians had been teaching them nature manipulation as well. Shizune told them that she had managed to get a small split in the leaf, but was still working on it. Itachi said his father told him his Katon was good enough, so he started to teach him how to work Suiton. And Chōji told them that his dad found out that he was a good Doton user, so he started Chōji out with that.

* * *

After dinner, all of the adults plus Akiko stayed inside of the house while all of the kids went back outside to train. Before Naruto started training, though, he had to learn about the exercises that both Chōji and Itachi were doing, since he had Fūton down and would practice Katon some other time. He asked both of his friends to explain the process of drawing out Doton and Suiton chakra.

"My dad told me that to use Doton chakra properly," Chōji started, "you must be as strong and as unyielding as the earth is beneath you. You have to have full confidence in your actions, because if you don't believe in yourself, your technique will fail to come about. To activate Doton chakra, you must feel the vibrations of the earth beneath you and allow those same vibrations to travel through your body. Once you resonate properly with the earth, only then can you use Doton properly." Chōji then picked a rock that was slightly bigger than his hand and focused on it. A moment later, he closed his hand around the rock and it collapses, reducing into a fine powder with several large pieces and sharp fragments of rock still visible. "Once you master Doton chakra, making rocks into fine powder come naturally."

Itachi and Naruto both looked at their chubby friend with awe. That was awesome! Naruto really could not wait to try. Itachi then led Naruto over to a small koi pond. He held out both of his hands over the water and turned his head slightly to Naruto. "I had to get mother to teach me a Suiton exercise. To work this out, you must first think of the moon. Without such a great force of gravity, waves would not exist in this world. Suiton is much difficult than most other nature types because it is going to require you to expel and recall your chakra constantly in this exercise. You must use your chakra to push like gravity, and then pull your chakra back in, mimicking the appearance of tides. You must become one with gravity and the moon." Itachi pushed his hands forward and drew them back slowly, continuing this for a moment before the surface of the water began to hump up and down slightly. "I'm afraid I'm not very good at this," Itachi told Naruto with a nervous chuckle.

Naruto just shook his head and said, "I'm sure you will get this down perfectly, Itachi!" Naruto then left the boy to his own exercise and walked back over to Shizune who held a leaf that had a cut half way down its length. He simply swiped his hand over the remainder of his leaves and they all ended up sliced perfectly, both horizontally and vertically. Shizune looked on in shock at the act.

"_Wow, Naruto is amazing,"_ she thought to herself.

Jutsu List

**Bunshin no Jutsu! - Clone Technique!**


	6. Chapter 6

Hello, all, and welcome to the next installment of Rise of the Kami! I'd like to apologize for this chapter before hand. I couldn't sleep this morning around 3, so I decided to try finishing this up. So, if some parts don't make sense, I'll read through it later to fix it up. As always, all criticism is welcome. Enjoy the read!

I removed the Pakura tag because I think I'll actually start that pairing in part 2 of this, but they will meet in part 1 and will become well acquainted with each other~ SSJ3 Kyuubi Gohan

_Chapter 6_

It's been about 8 months since Naruto has started to train in the arts of nature manipulation. The boy has progressed amazingly, getting down the first part of exercises for each nature that his paper had shown. He was happy, finding out that after he had mastered the beginner Fūton exercise that all other natures simply came naturally to him. It was an amazing ability that he discovered of himself, and he was trying to keep it secret. He wanted to find out what it meant to have four natures for himself. He felt like it was something he had to accomplish on his own, figure out for himself. But even though he was making astounding progress, he could not stop the plague of strange dreams that effected him every once in awhile. And while he was laying down in his bed, experiencing another foreign piece of memory, a man appeared in his room.

The man was wearing a black one suit, though the collar was fanned and pulled up to cover the bottom half of the man's face, if his face was visible. On the man's face was a yellow-orange mask with a somewhat spiral pattern to it. His hair was cut short and was kind of spiky, though the back end of his hair was longer than the front. He raised his gloved hands and a sudden haze appeared around the room, blocking anyone from being able to detect chakra within this room. With his barrier set, he looked at the young boy who was sleeping in a twin-sized bed. The sheets were a simple dark blue that had small spirals, kunai, and shuriken stitched into it. The man walked over to the boy and placed his index finger and thumb on the boy's neck, applying pressure. The boy's body remained in the same state, but it was just an extra precaution to make sure that the boy was really asleep.

He raised a gloved hand and a low red light appeared in his palm, he lowered it to the boy's face. He activated his Sharingan, his black eye now taking on a red hue with three tomoe surrounding his pupil. He let his hand touch the top of the boy's head and a brief flash of light filtered into his eye. He took in all of the invisible information he received from that flash of light and nodded approvingly, impressed with his work. He prepares to place his glowing hand over the boy's heart until he hears a tearing noise behind him. He spun around instantly, the red light fading and a chokutō appeared in his hand with a black hilt.

The cause of the tearing noise causes him to lower his weapon. Now standing before him was another masked man. This man was wearing a similar black suit to the first man, except the collar was shaped in the fashion of a turtle neck. On his right arm was a gauntlet that started at the man's fingertips and traveled up to his elbow. His hair was in the same fashion as the first man's, except his was a bright red. The most obvious thing the man had other than his gauntlet was his mask. The mask was in the shape of a face, the skin a light purple. The teeth on the mask were formed into a menacing grin and the visible teeth were black. At the very top of the mask were two long, curved horns. It was none other than the mask of the Shinigami.

"I almost killed you, you know?" the first man said, dropping his chokutō, the blade disappearing in a shimmer of light. "Besides, I thought you said you weren't going to come around unless the boy really needed it and he seems to be doing fine."

The second man crossed his arms, leaned against a wall, and chuckled, "I just wanted to see how he's doing. You know how I am..."

"Of course I do, always caring way too much. You need to set your priorities straight," the first man joked. He turned back around with his right hand raised, the same red light showing in his palm again. "Since you interrupted me, I'll have to start again, dammit." He placed his hand on the boy's head and the same flash of light came back, the man's Sharingan deciphering all of the information that came to him. "Good, good."

"How is he doing? Is he progressing well?" the second man asked, stepping away from the wall to get a glimpse of Naruto.

"Are you really doubting my work? You already know I'm the best with this stuff. I can do this without an known effects, making the patient seem like they didn't even have any surgery," the first man said, moving his hand down to Naruto's chest.

"If only Tsunade was that good," the second man replied. "She probably could have saved the life of Dan if she was as good as you."

The first man nodded as another flash of light jumped from Naruto's chest, an image of a familiar face being burned into the retina of his Sharingan. He nodded again, smiling underneath his mask at his handiwork.

"Now, I just need to make sure his chakra pool is just fine and we will be done here," the man said, pressing his palm into Naruto's stomach. A flash of blue came about, showing that the boy's chakra was healthy and much stronger than it should have been at his age. "Very good, very good."

"Did you mess with his chakra pool yet? Like manipulate it or whatever?" the second man asked curiously.

"I could have, but I decided against it. Telling from this, he's far stronger than we were at his age."

The first man stepped back as the second man stepped forward. He raised his index and middle finger of his gauntleted hand and a small pinprick of white light appeared there. He pressed his fingers against Naruto's forehead and five separate points of light jumped to the surface of Naruto's skin in the formation of a pentagon, each light having a different color, but shining dully. The top left light was a dull red, the top right was a dull purple, the bottom left a rusty, dull brown, the bottom right an extremely light blue, and the very top was an intensely black light. **"Kai."** After saying the word, all of the light vanished and sunk into Naruto's forehead. "This will help you out some more," the man with the Shinigami mask told Naruto, smiling down at the peacefully sleeping boy.

"Do you think it was a good idea to give him those memories?" the man with the spiral mask asked his companion. "People are going to start questioning him and possibly even hunting him down if shows all of the signs so soon. Especially the red, brown, and black light."

"Don't worry, I have complete faith in Naruto," the second man told him. "It would have only been a matter of time before he awakened those memories, anyway. I was just pushing him along." The man turned away from Naruto and stared at his spiral masked comrade. "Come on, let's leave."

Both men began to fade from view, the spiral masked man disappearing into a black vortex and the Shinigami masked man disappearing into another tear, the sound of space ripping filling the room.

* * *

Naruto's mind projected the thoughts of whom he was dreaming of out into his mind. He still felt odd about these dreams, and even though he wanted to wake himself from some dreams, he found that his body would not let him.

_In a small garden slightly to the north east of Konohagakure no Sato there was a tiny koi pond and __directly in the center of the pond, was a massive, flat grey stone. Around the edges of the stone were carved in Kanji, each stylized character glowing with internal energy. The soft glows of blue, red, and yellow reflected gently off of the water as a massive ripple of energy exploded out from the center of the large stone. A cloud of steam rose up from the water and a small twister followed quickly. The koi that were just a moment earlier swimming gracefully began to move erratically through the newly formed currents, causing small whirlpools to form in the pond. And as suddenly as all of this began, it simply stopped. The water returned to its peaceful state and the carp went to their lazy swimming routines. But there was a new addition to the pond. Seated upon the stone in a half lotus meditative position, was a blond shinobi, looking as if were around 30 years of age._

_The blond shinobi opened his vibrant blue eyes to stare off into the distance before a wide grin spread out over his face. The jewel of the rather close horizon was the beautifully carved and sculpted Hokage Monument. His eyes lingered longest on the final face on the mountain, seeing that it was finally added while he was gone on his journey to spread peace to the lands surrounding the shinobi nation. This newest addition had spiky hair near the back of his head with bangs that cascaded over his forehead and fell just above his eyes. A feeling of strength and vitality radiated off of this sculpture as the man admired the craftsmanship that the artist made of his best friend. Uchiha Sasuke, the Rokudaime Hokage. _

_It was just after the war when the man realized that there was far too much unrest left in the world and that he would be able to fix all of these problems with just the right amount of time. He gave up his dreams of becoming the Hokage for a new dream of cleaning the world of up, to establish a peace that was sorely needed. The blond shinobi was so lost in his thoughts that he failed to notice that an exceptionally attractive lavender haired kunoichi approached him from his back. She held a pack over her right shoulder and piercing white eyes were boring into the man's back that sat before her. She placed her pack on the ground and put her hands on her hips, clearing her throat to gain the man's attention. The man jumped almost comically at the sound disrupting the peace that was surrounding them. The beautiful woman gave the blond shinobi a playful look before he simply vanished from his spot and wrapped his arms around the woman, burying his nose into her hair and neck._

_"Hinata, I've missed you so much!"_ _the man exclaimed, causing the woman to giggle into his shoulder._ _"And look at you! Your hair looks great! I really am liking this style."_

_"Thanks, Naruto," Hinata responded, tears forming in her eyes. The man looked frightened, as if he had said the wrong thing, but Hinata just shook her head and smiled widely at him. "I'm just happy that you're finally back to stay. For good this time!" She buried her face into his shoulder and began to sob._

_He had helped to defeat the ultimate evil power in this world, defeating some of the most powerful ninja to ever exist. But it seems as if he still had no idea how to handle a woman crying. He awkwardly pat and rubbed her back._

"_Yeah, I definitely won't be leaving again! -ttebayo!" he shouted, picking up Hinata in his arms and started to carry her back to the village. "So, how have things been going in the past couple of months? How is Kai doing?"_

_Hinata snuggled into the man's arms as he leaped over trees to start on his journey to the village. "Oh, everything has been going extremely well within the village. Sasuke-kun has been able to increase the ninja force and has also made peace treaties with almost all of the surrounding villages and nations. The only ones really reluctant to sign are Kirigakure no Sato and Amegakure no Sato." She thought for a minute. "Kai is doing really well. She is top of her class and is just as hyper-active as you ever were. I believe she is taking her Genin Exam in an hour or so, so you can surprise her after she gets out. We could go to Ichiraku for a celebration."_

"_Oh, man, it has been so long since I've had any decent ramen on my journey! That would be great, babe!" the man laughed merrily as he placed a gentle kiss upon his lover's forehead. "I'll get us back quickly. I want to catch up a bit with Sasuke and Sakura to see how they have been doing." _

_He flashed Hinata a smile as his body took on a golden-yellow light and he simply winked out in a flash, moving faster than the eye could follow, eager to meet see his two best friends after such a long time._

_...Something was not right. As soon as the blond shinobi leaped over the Hokage Monument and landed on top of the Hokage Mansion, he could feel it. It was as if...something was wrong with the atmosphere are Konohagakure. He placed Hinata on her feet and walked forward a bit. Once he was a few feet ahead of the woman, he went completely still, focusing on all of the natural energy around him, trying to gather it to activate his Sage Mode. But...the energy was tainted...dark...revolting. He opened his eyes and turned around, a question on the tip of his tongue as he started to look at Hinata. But what greeted him was something he was not expecting. The body was the exact same as the woman he loved, but the face was of an unknown man, a man with murderous intent blazing from his eyes. _

"_Time to die, Uzumaki Naruto," venom dripped from the man's grating voice as he flashed ahead, plunging a sword deep into Naruto's stomach._

* * *

Naruto's eyes flew open and he sat up as he felt a sword rip through his stomach. He thought he heard a tearing sound, but he could not be too sure, having just woken up from a dream. He laid back down and moved his hand to touch his forehead, rubbing a spot just above his brow. His head was throbbing a bit.

"_It's probably nothing," _Naruto thought to himself as his recent dream began to fade from his memory, leaving another blank slot in his mind. He laid back down and rolled onto his right side, looking at his digital clock. "Huh, 3:54," Naruto says to himself, getting out of his bed. He felt as though he was now completely awake, so he thought there would be no point in continuing sleeping. "There's no time like now to continue you my manipulation training. You can never be too perfect," the boy said to himself, rolling off of his bed and leaving his room.

Upon leaving through the back shōji, Naruto's eyes immediately fell onto his father's koi pond. The rather large puddle of water was his father's sanctuary. Whenever the man had to gather his thoughts about something that Hiruzen could not help him with, he would come here. Naruto took a step closer to the koi pond and the koi pond from his dream jumped to his mind. It even had the same flat stone in the center.

"_Weird," _Naruto thought to himself. _"It's just like my dream."_ He leapt over the surface of the water and landed on the rock, sitting down upon it, falling into a half lotus stance as if it was second nature to the boy.

He laid his hand on his lap and closed his eyes, his body instantly relaxing. He was not trying to draw in or pull forth any chakra, he was just simply meditating. And rather quickly, all of the nature and Naruto's surroundings all faded from his physical view and his chakra awareness reappeared, the same exact awareness he had the day Lady Hinata got kidnapped. But this time it was much more defined. Even though everything around him was still made of chakra, he could "look" at whatever he wanted to and see the same details that he normally would. It just looked as though everything's real appearance looked rather fuzzy being placed its chakra. It was so well defined that Naruto could tell the difference from a compacted, rolled up piece of grass and a rock. It was astounding and Naruto was getting excited with his abilities.

Like the last time he was in this state, he decided to do the exact same thing, slowly pushing his awareness outwards. He slowly "floats" along, gliding through solid walls until he reaches the upstairs area of his house. With a mental shrug, Naruto decides to creep his way into his parents' room, wanting to do a little spying. Upon entering the large, spacious room, he noticed that room only had two people in it: his mother and his sister. Both of them were fast asleep, Kushina pressed up against Akiko's back, her red hair sprawled out and covering most of the bed. A small smile was plastered on the woman's face as Akiko moved backwards a bit, snuggling up more to her mother. Kushina moved her head down and rubbed her cheek on her daughter's blond head. Naruto smiled at the warm moment taking place in the room, but soon got confused when he realized that his father was not within the room with his mom and sister. He wondered where exactly his father could be, then saw a random spike of chakra through walls, the spike being a sun bright blue thanks to his awareness.

He floated through another two walls until he came into his father's study. A perfect oak desk sat in the middle of the room and against every wall were large cabinets made as scroll holders, each cabinet holding around 600 scrolls. Naruto saw his father sitting at the desk, a pallet of ink laid out to his left as he held an ink brush in his right hand. He would randomly apply a few brushstrokes before removing his brush from a scroll with extremely complex seals written on its surface. Just looking at it, Naruto could sense all of the chakra being emitted from the scroll, like it was a living, breathing thing.

He floated over to his father, looking over his father's shoulder to get a better look at the seals that were on the scroll. He could tell almost immediately that the entire scroll was completely out of his league. Arithmetic formulas of the highest caliber indicating spatial wards, at least 12 mediums that were needed to keep a surplus of chakra flowing through and into the scroll, and time-stopping seals. Naruto had no idea how he knew all of this information, but it just drifted into his mind. But then he noticed something wrong with the scroll. His father had just applied a Yasunori time seal, but he used the wrong variation. If he activated the scroll with that seal in place, then it would completely tear through the spatial restrictions. Everything within a 3-8 mile distance would be drawn into the scroll, utterly destroying it.

Then Naruto saw Minato apply a Yin seal. God lord, was his father suicidal?! Naruto saw exactly what would happen if his father activated this scroll. It would potentially create a black hole. That Yin seal his father added really added to the destructive power of the Yasunori time seal. Naruto had to get to his father and tell him to stop modifying the scroll before he tried testing it with his mother and sister so close.

A large empty space appeared to the right of his father, completely void of chakra. But the space just outside of the void had the same chakra signature as Naruto's and he did not know what told him to, but he increased his awareness even more, feeling the chakra of the world flow into his body. He "looked down" at himself and saw that there was literally no physical matter left of his body. He was now completely made of chakra. He began to panic, not knowing what was happening and his awareness cut off, showing him still sitting in the same spot he closed his eyes in. Relaxing a bit, Naruto leapt off of the rock and ran back inside, needing to get to his father before he decided to channel some of his chakra into the wretched scroll.

* * *

Naruto flashed the house faster than he thought was possible and he slammed his father's study door open, causing a small yelp to come from inside. Naruto looked in and saw his father standing up, holding a Hiraishin kunai and looking a little shaken up. Once he realizes that it was Naruto he scared him, Minato lets out a light chuckle before pocketing his weapon. The blond man sits back down and looks at his son critically. "What's wrong, Naruto? Is everything all right?"

"Tō-san, you've chosen some of the wrong components for this scroll," Naruto told his father, catching his breath and pointing at the Yasunori seal. "You can't really combine this variation of the Yasunori seal with all of these spatial seals. It'll tear right through it." Naruto then pointed to another seal. "And this one. If you use the Yin seal combined with the Yasunori seal and other complicated time seals then...well...you'll absorb almost everything into this seal! You can't do that!" Naruto cried.

"Yin seal?" Minato asked, surprised his son saw something. "You see a Yin seal on this scroll?" Minato asks his son curiously, knowing that he had placed a modified Yin seal on it, but no one other than he and Kushina would be alive to know about it.

"Well, it's not the standard Yin seal, but it has some of the same properties of the Namikaze and Fūma Yin seals that they derived from the Uzumaki Yin seal," Naruto replied, pointing out random spikes and small lines on the seal that stuck out differently from a standard Yin seal.

"_Interesting..." _Minato thinks to himself. "And what about the deviated Yasunori seal? Why would that and the Yin seal not work together?"

"Well, when you use a Yasunori seal, time completely stops within the scroll. It doesn't matter what you place into the scroll, because the Yasunori seal would not allow any more matter to enter its space. With a Yin seal attached, matter continues to be created, which shouldn't be possible without any time as a medium. It's a paradox, Tō-san," Naruto finished, not even really thinking about what he was saying, but just saying it.

Minato looked both impressed and curious. No one at this age should have such knowledge of deviated seals and variants. It was just...unnatural. Was his son already such a fūinjutsu master?

"Naruto, where did you learn all of this?" Minato asked his son, rolling the scroll up and placing it into a large chest that had the kanji for "NO" written on the top in red ink.

"I'm not sure, Tō-san. I just saw the seal and...knew everything about it," Naruto replied innocently. "Is it bad?"

Even though Naruto was a shinobi, this was a time of peace, so he kept forgetting that his son was also still a boy. "No! Kami, no! It's amazing!" Minato told his son, hugging the boy. "How about this: for your newly discovered knowledge, I'll take you, your mother, and Akiko all out for ramen for lunch and then later, I can show you your birthright. It's something I created a few years before you were born. Sounds good, right?"

Naruto had a wide smile on his face and he hugged his dad. Minato told him son to get some more sleep, which Naruto obeyed reluctantly. When Naruto left the room, Minato out a blank scroll and began to write down the process and steps for forming the Rasengan. "Looks like I'll need to go pick up some water balloons and rubber balls today," Minato said to himself as he started writing.

Jutsu List

**Kai. - Release. **(Not really a jutsu, but whatever)

A/N: A lot of that seal stuff was a bunch of gibberish, but I think I could've made it worse. Hope you enjoyed the read! Tune in next time for the next installment of Rise of the Kami!


	7. Chapter 7

Hello, all! Here is another installment of Rise of the Kami! This is a rather short chapter and it turned out rather decent. It's mostly a summary of Naruto's nature manipulation training. As always, all criticism is welcome. Enjoy the read!

_Chapter 7_

Naruto has been progressing amazingly. You would think that the kid still had both of his hands. After having a little over a year to focus on his nature manipulation, he had gotten all of the off the basic exercises down. His Fūton training was hat he finish first, having his father, Kushina, Akiko, and Hiruzen all watching over the final exercise, the three adults looking quite mesmerized by the fact that a 7-year old could single handedly (literally!) cut through a waterfall by himself. They all went out for as a celebration and even though Naruto was excited, he knew that he still had plenty of work to get done to finish the exercises for the other natures. He would watch his close friends for hours as they would work on their natures, randomly asking them questions that would peak his interest.

While watching Konohamaru one day, he asked the boy about his Katon training, wondering exactly how to breathe fire without burning one's own throat and how to have such a mastery over fire that you can only focus on burning the inside of a log, not letting any flames lick the bark. Konohamaru just smiled at his friend and simply said, "Chakra." Naruto asked him to explain it further, wanting to know if his hypothesis was correct. "Well, to protect your throat, you simply line it with chakra that will keep the flames at bay, preventing them from harming you. The same principle applies to the log, though it is much more difficult. You still use your chakra to protect the outer layer, but since it's not connected to your body, it's harder to control your chakra from a distance. Once you can create a fire within an object and control its intensity, only then will someone have a proper mastery over Katon." Nartuo accepted this. He mastered the Katon exercises within a week.

He would then watch his good friend Itachi work a river as if he was the moon itself. Just like Fūton and Doton, Suiton only had one exercise. It was pretty much the same principle as creating small waves, using your chakra to mimic gravity, but you had to apply much more force to it, still being able to keep your control in it and being able to control the size of the waves. The main goal here was to make massive waves, about 15 feet high, and, once again, Naruto had mastered this within a week.

But Doton...Doton was the hardest challenge for the boy. Even his jījī said it took him a little over a month to get this down, so Naruto really was not looking forward to it. After pulverizing a rock into fine powder, the next goal was to reconstruct the powder into a rock. By using Doton chakra, the user would be able to compress the powder back into its natural state, causing its vibrations to become much closer together. It was the hardest task that Naruto had ever assigned himself, but after a solid three weeks of focusing on just that challenge alone, Naruto was able to get that down.

After finishing all of the exercises, Naruto then made it his mission to learn at least 10 elemental jutsus from each nature he had. The boy was constantly in and out of his father's study, taking random C and B-Rank jutsu scrolls. After he had finished his 9th jutsu, he would go to one of his teacher's and get them to "show" him a really cool jutsu, but he would really be watching their hand seals, memorizing them as soon as he saw them. From his jījī, he was able to decipher the **Katon: Kary****ū**** Endan** and the **Doton: Dory****ū****dan**. From his mother, he was able to learn **Suiton: Bakusui Sh****ō****ha. **He would have asked Asuma for a Fūton technique, but the man had already left for the Shugonin Jūnishi, so he had to ask his jījī again. Hiruzen tells Naruto that even though he does know plenty of Fūton techniques that there is someone in the village that specializes in them. Hiruzen takes Naruto to his old friend, Danzō, who looks at the boy like he's a tool. He says no, that Naruto is not worthy, so Naruto challenged him to a fight. Needless to say, Naruto lost, but he did manage to inflict some hurt onto the bandaged man. Danzō decides to teach him a technique, thinking that sometime in the future, he would be able to manipulate Naruto into joining Root. He teaches Naruto **F****ū****ton: Shink****ū****jin**.

Naruto is pleased with his learnings and decides to focus on his dad's technique, the **Rasengan.**

* * *

The Namikaze training grounds were in complete devastation. Uprooted trees were splintered and were strewn across the field, craters were littering the ground and high stone walls of the training grounds, showing where some intense attack struck it. A blond boy wearing a sweat-drenched white t-shirt and black pants is standing in the middle of the devasation. His body is shaking due to the massive amount of chakra he has already exerted, but he is not giving up.

"Again!" someone shouts out behind him, there voice sounding like the cracking of thunder.

Naruto raises his only arm with his fingers curled. A vortex of chakra begins to form above his hand and then it falls, condensing within his curled grasp. He loosens his fingers up and a small, blue sphere forms in his hand, spinning in place. He runs to a tree, panting and wheezing. Once he's directly in front of the tree, Naruto pushes out his right hand, the sphere digging into the bark of the tree. And just when the attack was about to get to its climax, it dissipates, leaving the boy's hand in a small spiral of chakra.

"Dammit!" Naruto shouts at himself, throwing a fist at the tree.

"Control!" the voice behind him shouts out. "Control yourself and you'll get it. I believe in you. Again!"

Naruto sighed and retook his position, taking the same stance. A blue sphere was now in his hand and he ran forward a bit before throwing his hand down, the sphere colliding with the earth. The ground underneath him instantly bowed, but the same results came about. The sphere dissipated. Naruto got up and shook his head. He walked over to his dad, feeling his entire body ache. "Hey, Tō-san, can we take a break?"

Minato smiles down at his son, his obviously showing the fatigue of hard work. "Sure thing. We'll take a quick five minute break and then we'll pick up where we left off. I'll go get us some tea," Minato told his son, turning around and walking through a shōji to get back into his house.

Naruto immediately sits down in a half lotus position, closing his eyes, attempting to meditate. He searches for a reason as to why the _Rasengan_keeps failing. He knew that he definitely had the necessary power, shape, and rotation down, but the damn sphere kept dispersing! Whatever it was, it was causing the shape to become lost whenever he hit an object, but he could not see why. Naruto then relaxed, breathing in deeply. He needed to search within himself to find the solution to this problem, but when he got to deep another broken and unknown memory jumped into his mind.

The memory was of his Bā-chan cowering on the ground. There was a Naruto in the memory a couple of years older than he was right now and wearing some ridiculous orange suit. A man with grey hair tried to attack the memory Naruto with a kunai, prompting him to catch the kunai between his fingers. With the man trapped, the memory Naruto brought forth a _Kage Bunshin_, getting help from the clone to create a _Rasengan_ and attacking the man in the abdomen.

Naruto's eyes opened and he thought that it was such a ridiculous idea and task that he would need a Kage Bunshin to complete the _Rasengan_. Shaking his head, he stood up again and walked back into the center of the training grounds, staring at a perfect training dummy. He looked on, knowing that this was the last dummy that the family had at the moment and that this last _Rasengan _had to count. He began the process, curling his fingers as a vortex of chakra appears above his hand. He loosens them a bit and the perfect sphere shows back up. Just before he was about to dash at the dummy, a thought jumped into his head.

"_What if I add Fūton chakra to this?"_ Naruto looks down at the sphere in his hand, analyzing it briefly before shrugging. Another vortex appears above his hand, but only this time, it is pale white instead of blue, showing that it is air. The air continues to swirl down, some of it mixing into his already made _Rasengan_, causing the shade of the ball to glow white instead of blue. As a finishing touch, the air began to cover the outside of the ball, making four small blades out of air circle nimbly around the sphere. Naruto admired his handiwork and decided to give this a try. The boy ran to the dummy and struck it in its abdomen, an intense tearing and ripping sound assaulting his ears. The dummy was then liften off of its stand and Naruto did not know what compelled him to, but he thought **"****Kai"**, and a massive explosion proceeded. The dummy was completely obliterated, having taken a huge portion of a stone wall with it. Naruto looked at the sight with his mouth open, obviously surprised that combining Fūton chakra to a _Rasengan _worked.

Someone stuttering behind him made the boy turn around, showing his gaping father. The man had his mouth open like a fish and his eyes were just as wide. On the ground before him, in pieces, was a tea set and a wooden tray. He took in the sight of the wall of his training ground and can only wonder what had caused such damage.

"N-Naruto," Minato sputtered out, "what did you do?"

"I figured out why my _Rasengan _kept failing," he responded. "Whenever I would use it, I felt that it was...lacking something, that something really wasn't right about it. It was missing a proper shell. So, I decided to run my Fūton chakra through it and around it, giving the _Rasengan _a stable shell to stay within until impact. Then all I had to do was strike something and when I was ready to, I'd say _Kai, _causing my Fūton and regular chakra to merge, and when you try to merge two foreign chakras, they collide and explode, ripping everything apart." He scratches the back of his head, but then winces a bit, looking at his freshly scratched palm. "My hands does hurt a little bit, though." He looks back at his father, who is completely shocked.

Minato is...is...did his own son, who just so happens to be 8 years old, just combine a chakra nature to his own technique in under a minute? A technique that took him 3 YEARS TO CREATE?! This was unbelievable! Minato just looks at his son and says, "Do it again."

Naruto simply shrugs and curls his fingers, except this time instead of the chakra forming first and then the wind joining it, the two came about at the same time, forming the glowing bladed _Rasengan_. Naruto then looks at his dad, who has a look of childish glee etched onto his face. Naruto then takes off, running towards a tree and throwing his new _Rasengan _into its bark. After it touches, Naruto takes a few steps back and the tree is completely uprooted, a ripping sound coming about from the blazing speed of the _Rasengan_. Naruto then just looks at the sphere and it simply explodes outwards, creating a large blue and white explosive sphere that completely engulfed the tree and a good 20 feet out. Once the explosion ends, large chunks of splintered wood begin to rain down upon the training grounds and Minato runs over to his son.

As soon as he gets close enough, he grabs the boy and toss him up playfully into the air and began to laugh merrily. Naruto does not know what is going on, but he too begins to laugh quickly, enjoying the moment that he and his father both shared. At that moment, Kushina walks up to the doorway leading to the training grounds with Akiko holding onto her mother's hand. Kushina looks in on the sight of her husband and son laughing, and the scene just makes her heart flutter. She steps outside with Akiko following and approaches her men while Akiko begins to giggle at the sight of her father and brother having so much fun.

"Why the celebration?" Kushina asks them, flashing them both a bright smile.

Minato caught Naruto in midair and places the boy back down onto his feet, but continues to laugh between gasps of breath. "Our son, our _great _son, just completed the _Rasengan _on his own," Minato tells his wife, and quickly after, she begins to laugh as well.

She runs into her husband and son and hugs the stuffing out of the both of them. She knew that she should be mad, knowing that experimenting with the _Rasengan _was extremely dangerous. She remembered briefly the one time Minato tried to combine Katon chakra with a _Rasengan_, and the explosion earned him a week in the hospital and a couple of broken bones. But it did not matter anymore. Her boy had completed the _Rasengan_ and was still standing against her, hugging her. Akiko pouted and ran up to her family and squeezed her way into the group hug, hoping to get a cuddle or two. The family laughed at the little girl's antic and they all hugged her as well. Minato was the first to pull out of the hug and he walks a couple of steps away before saying, **"Kuchiyose no Jutsu."**

A small scroll appears out of thin air and Naruto catches a glimpse of it before his father places it behind his back. The scroll was a deep blue, but it was very faded, showing that it had some age to it. Some of the kanji that was scrawled on the side was faded as well and all Naruto could get out of it was a perfectly written 'S' and 'E'. Minato approaches Naruto again and stands before him as the boy breaks his hug with his mom and sister.

"Naruto, this is one of the most beneficial jutsus ever created and it has helped me save not only my own life, but hundreds of lives," Minato told his son, sincerity dripping from his voice. "Since you have properly added a nature to a _Rasengan_, which is an A-Rank feat on its own, I feel that it is necessary to give you this." He then pulls the scroll from behind his back and places it into Naruto's hand. Naruto reads the writing on the side and though it is faded, he can now clearly see that it says 'Senju, Tobirama'. "This is one of the many great techniques that the Nidaime Hokage created. This is the **Hiraishin no Jutsu**. I believe that you are more than ready for it."

Naruto looks at the scroll and a large smile appears on his face. "Thanks, Tō-san! I love you!" Naruto hugs his dad as tears begin to well up in his eyes.

Jutsu List

**Katon: Kary****ū**** Endan - Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet**

******Doton: Dory****ū****dan - Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet**

**Suiton: Bakusui Sh****ō****ha - Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave**

******F****ū****ton: Shink****ū****jin - Wind Release: Vacuum Blade**

**Rasengan - Spiralling Sphere**

******Kai - Release**

**********Kuchiyose no Jutsu - Summoning Technique **

**************Hiraishin no Jutsu - Flying Thunder God Technique**


	8. Chapter 8

Hello, all! Here is another installment to Rise of the Kami. This one took me a bit to get through, not having much of an outline for this, so I really don't like the way that this came out. As always, all criticism is welcome. Enjoy the read.

_Chapter 8_

There was gently, cool breeze flowing around this time of the year. The dark and gloomy skies reflected the oncoming snow that was bound to happen this season, but, over all, it was still a very pleasant day outside. Most of the adults at this time would be leaving for their shops, preparing for a long's day work. If the adults were the parents of a shinobi, then they would most likely be getting ready around this time to walk to the Academy, to see if their children would graduate. Most of the younger generation of shinobi knew that they would not get a chance to graduate this year, but they all decided to tag along anyway to watch the short outdoor ceremony. Almost all of the participants of the graduation were ready except for a large group of them. In fact, at this moment, they were all busy training.

In the middle of the Third Training Ground stood two individuals, one blond, one a brunette. Both stood completely motionless except for their hair lazily blowing in the breeze. The two of them had their eyes closed as they both tried to focus on their surroundings. The blond was none other than Naruto Namikaze. Now at 9-years old, the boy had his fair share of training and mastery over chakra natures. It was extremely impressive. He stood in the middle of the training ground wearing his horned forehead protector, a long sleeved black t-shirt with a red spiral design on the front, blue pants that stopped just above his ankles, and a supply pouch on his right thigh. His right arm was covered in bandages from his shoulder to the middle of his forearm and just on his wrist was an extremely complicated seal. Tied to the boy's lower back, in a similar fashion to his godfather, was a large scroll for his size. At the point of contact to the boy's back, the scroll had a knowledge transfer seal placed on it, so any seal Naruto wished for would simply pop into his mind as long as it was in the scroll.

The other boy was Naruto's bestfriend and rival, Konohamaru Sarutobi. Konohamaru was wearing his grandfather's old and precious forehead protector along with a long sleeved pale green jacket, a pair of grey pants in the same fashion as Naruto, a supply pouch on his left thigh, and a long blue scarf that he had thrown over his shoulder. Konohamaru, now 8, had an extremely powerful affinity for Katon, with attacks equal to most jōnin Katon users.

The two just continued to stand there for a minute with their eyes closed, both of them only hearing the breeze of the wind and rustling of the trees. Naruto opens one of his eyes and looks at his friend, Konohamaru doing the same.

"Do you hear anything?" Naruto asks Konohamaru, now opening both of his eyes and looking around the training ground.

"Other than nature, no," Konohamaru responds. He too begins to look around, both of the boys searching the grounds with their eyes as if they were expecting something.

"We're probably under an auditory genjutsu, then. Shizune has gotten pretty good at these," Naruto tells his friend, smiling at him. "I didn't even hear any senbon or strings fly this way."

Both of them made a half ram seal and thought, **"Kai."**

Almost immediately afterward, they turn around to see at least 100 kunai and shuriken each sailing towards them from a copse of trees. Naruto and Konohamaru both relax and perform four hand seals flawlessly, before spitting out a mass of mud which quickly solidifies and turns into hard rock. **"Doton: Dory****ū****heki!"** The shower of tools slammed down simultaneously into the newly created earthen wall. Naruto and Konohamaru both smiled at each other as Naruto reached into his supply pouch, burying his arm almost to the elbow. He had placed a space expansion seal on it, so as to increase the amount of objects he could place inside of it. He withdrew a three pronged kunai that had red paper wrapped around the handle with kanji written on it. Naruto weighed the kunai in his hand and peaked around the wall, to get a good visualize of where he would be throwing it to. He ran from behind the wall, making sure to place a seal on the back of the wall, and tossed the kunai in the direction from which the shuriken and other kunai came from. He then pulled out five more three pronged kunai and tossed them behind his first one, all of them in various angles so that they would surround their opponent. As soon as they were tossed, Konohamaru came out from behind the wall and grabbed Naruto's arm, the two of them disappearing in a bright flash of red light.

The boys reappear with another flash of red, Naruto grabbing his kunai out of the air. And as soon as he places it back in his pouch, he catches Shizune performing hand seals from the corner of his eye. The black haired girl cries out, **"F****ū****ton: Shink****ū****gyoku!" **She exhales and a large stream of air is pushed from her lungs, aiming for Naruto.

"Konohamaru!" the boy shouts as Konohamaru gets in front of him.

"I'm on it!" Konohamaru replied, performing several hand signs that Naruto had never seen before. **"Katon: Bakuf****ū**** Ranbu!" **Konohamaru called out and a large spiral of fire gets released from his mouth. It heads in the direction of Shizune's air stream and the flames overtake it, adding to the destructive power of the blast with heading straight towards Shizune.

Chōji jumps in front of the girl, covered in large chunks of rock showing his **Doton no Yoroi**, preparing to protect her from the flames. While she's behind him, Shizune begins to knead chakra in her stomach to change its properties and chemical structure to produce a none fatal dose of **Dokugiri. **But she was cut short as the fire approached Chōji and he was attacked, not by fire, but by a concealed Naruto, hiding behind the flames. Naruto had one of his unstable **Rasengans** in his hand, needing it to only destroy the armor that Chōji was covered in.

Chōji was blown backwards, flipping in midair as the rocks began to fall away from his body, crumbling into smaller rocks as they hit the ground. Naruto charges the boy, seeing an opening, but when he's close enough, Chōji smirks and enlarges his hand, grabbing a surprised Naruto. Naruto struggles in his grip and Chōji tosses the blond into the air, preparing to jump up and continue the attack, but Naruto disappears in a bright flash of red light, reappearing directly behind Chōji with his hand covered in a blue aura with small sparks of electricity running around it. The chubby boy freaks out and back flips away.

"_I can't let him hit me with that," _Chōji thought to himself, mid back flip. Once he landed, he noticed that the ground beneath him felt a little...off. He looked down and saw an unconscious Konohamaru who had swirls for eyes.

Shizune was beside him, holding a senbon out, but was now doubling over in laughter. Chōji would have begun laughing as well, but he remembered that the two of them still had to take care of Naruto. Chōji leapt off of Konohamaru and charged at Naruto. At about 15 feet away from the blond, Chōji uses the Akimichi secret hand seal. Chōji's body instantly becomes larger, like a giant bubble. The boy's arms, legs, and head all moved inside of his extended form and he began to roll towards Naruto, a stream of chakra flowing out of his form. Naruto leaped over the tank and landed on his feet, channeling some his chakra into the earth around him, making the hard packed earth change into very thick and dense mud. Chōji slams full force into the mud and large wave is the reaction. Naruto sees an opening and goes in to attack, a blue aura around his outstretched. Just as soon as he was about to attack, he heard a whistling behind him and jumped backwards as 20 senbon struck the place in the ground he had just been. Naruto relaxes for a bit as he looks at the unconscious form of Konohamaru, laughing at the boy as Chōji is attempting to get out of the mud pool while in his _Human Bullet Tank_ form. He realizes that it will be a challenge to take on both of his friends at the same time, but he had to do what he had to do.

At that moment, Chōji finally frees himself from the mud and reverts back to his regular self and starts to charge at Naruto again. At about 25 feet from the boy, Chōji makes a snake hand seal and a spring board of earth pushes the boy up into the air, propelling him towards the lone blond. A large clump of earth jumps up to him while he's in midair and the earth sticks to his reared back fist. After focusing chakra on it, the fist enlarges to be the same size of himself.

Shizune then takes off, producing three _Kage Bunshins _and charging Naruto from behind, each Shizune holding a kunai and launching about 20 senbon. Naruto finds himself surrounded in the copse of trees and he briefly starts to panic before remembering what his father had told him: A true shinobi is calm in the face of adversary. Naruto then takes a deep breath, exhaling just as hard as he closes his eyes for a second. He begins to feel a massive surge of chakra being built up into his eyes and an unknown and slightly painful pressure pushing on his eyes. When he opens them, he can see chakra everywhere, as if he was meditating for full awareness at the moment. Time had also slowed down, giving him a bit of time to think of what to do next. He would have observed all of the beautiful chakra lazily drifting around in his new accelerated state, but he knew he had a problem on his hand. If he waited for a few more seconds, then he would be assaulted by a hail of senbon and Chōji would most likely be there by that time, driving Naruto into the ground with his fist. He swept his right arm in front of him fluidly, having an open palm facing Chōji. He did not know why, but the words just jumped into his mind, and he knew that these words would help him out. Before he said the words, he looked at Chōji's face, who was still in slow motion. The boy had a really confused look on his face as he looked into Naruto's eyes.

"**Shinrai Tensei!" **A massive ripple extended out around Naruto in a bubble and when Chōji and all of the Shizune's ran into the bubble, the got flung back extremely hard, crashing into a tree and laying on the ground, wheezing from their breath being knocked out of them. Naruto just stared at his hand, shocked at what just came about. He saw that he could still see the chakra flowing through his hand, so he shook his head and closed his eyes. Upon opening them, his eye sight was back to normal.

"Oooooow, what was that all about?" Chōji whined from where he was laying. "I feel like a tree was just thrown at me." The chubby shakily got to his feet and walked over to Naruto.

"Dammit, Naruto! I just reset my leg yesterday and it's already broken again!" Shizune grumbled, placing glowing hands over her disfigured leg, a large pop and snap resounding throughout the trees.

"I'm sorry, guys! I really don't know what just happened!" Naruto explained to his friends. "I just put my hand up and...the words just came to me, like they were always there, but...I had just forgotten them..." Naruto finished, sounding really confused.

Chōji slapped his friend's shoulder, causing his knees to buckle. "Don't worry about it, man. It wasn't too bad, I just wish I would have seen it before so I would know how to counter it." He flashed his friend a smile. "But you should worry about your eyes. I saw them before you used that attack. They got all weird," Chōji told his friend, moving over to pick up a still unconscious Konohamaru and throwing the boy over his shoulder.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked with a little worry in his voice.

"Well, when I looked at your eyes, they weren't blue anymore. They were kind of purple," Chōji told him, thinking pretty hard on what he saw. "Like a really light purple. And there were rings surrounding your pupils. They looked a bit like ripples. It was pretty strange, but really cool."

"So, does anyone want to tell me what that was?" Shizune asked the boys as she walked up, her leg completely healed. "It was pretty intense. Do you think you can do it again, Naruto?"

Naruto just shook his head. He was already searching for his memory of the name of the technique, but it seemed to escape his grasp. It was as if someone else was possessing him when he performed that amazing feat. Not only that, but he felt he needed these new eyes to actually do the attack. "I can't, Shizune. I don't remember the actual technique or how to activate those eyes, so it's pretty much out of the question."

After Naruto finished talking, a murder of crows appeared above them, circling around high above the trees before dive-bombing down in front of them. The crows all ran into each other, taking on the appearance of a boy around their age. Once the crows were finished transforming, Itachi was standing before them all, smiling at his group of friends. He looked over at Konohamaru and started to laugh at the boy's face. "Shizune, you need to wake him up or he'll be late for his own graduation."

All three friends looked confused at the word 'graduation', but then it dawned on them. Telling from position of the sun, the graduation was due to start pretty soon. Shizune put a senbon in a rejuvinating serum and pricked Konohamaru in the neck with it, the boy immediately jumping and falling off of Chōji's shoulder.

"All right, everyone," Naruto said to his friends. "Let's go." They all performed a ram hand seal (a half ram, in Naruto's case) and all of them disappeared in a puff of smoke.

* * *

The group of five walked onto a large porcelain platform. At the very back of the platform were a few seats that were occupied by older generations, most likely the heads of some clans. Naruto did not know if any of there clans would be graduating, but he just took it that they were there to watch and appreciate the next generation of shinobi. Standing before the adults at the back were a mass of Academy students that Naruto had never seen before. He just shrugged and walked over to the students, merging into the crowd to wait for the ceremony to begin. Naruto looked at the front of the platform and saw a few familiar faces. Sitting in a chair in the middle of the group was his father, Minato Namikaze, who was talking to two older people to his right. To his father's left was his jījī, who was smiling fondly at all of the young shinobi. And to Hiruzen's left was the teacher of one of his favorite Fūton techniques, Danzō Shimura. Even though the old bandaged man was usually rather rude and had a dark chakra about him, Naruto could not help but to respect the old man's strength.

Naruto looked at Chōji and was getting ready to say something until Minato stood up and started to talk.

"Before we officially begin, I would like to thank all of you to coming to this year's Academy graduation. Even though not many students are up to the level of graduating just yet, I believe that those who are graduating today feel extremely honored to have such a crowd," Minato told the audience, receiving a small round of applause. "Now, then! Without further ado, let us begin the graduation! I'm sure that these students are ready to begin the first true steps to become a shinobi! Let's see here...who's first..." Minato said to himself, producing a scroll and reading it. "Akimichi, Chōji. Please come to the front." A black carpet appeared in the center of the large platform and Chōji nervously walked onto the carpet and walked up to the front of the platform.

A large concussion of applause erupted from the back of the platform, signifying that the Akimichi clan was cheering on the next heir of the Akimichi clan. The cheering immediately reasserted the chubby boy's confidence and he began to walk up to the front with his head up high. Once he reached the front, Minato shook his hand and handed the boy a scroll, smiling at his son's friend.

"Katō, Shizune," Minato called next, Shizune following in her friends footsteps. Before she left, Shizune could hear Tsunade behind her threatening everyone in the vicinity that if they did not clap for her daughter then they would be very sorry. Immediately, uncharacteristic applause jumped about, causing Shizune to laugh on her way up to the front, receiving the same treatment as Chōji. She stepped aside, standing beside Chōji to wait for the next graduate.

"Lee, Rock." A short boy started to walk up to the front, looking slightly nervous. His hair was short and fell just below his ears, the back flipping up slightly. He had unnaturally large and round eyes and really thick eyebrows to match them. He was wearing a white robe with a black sash around his waist. Naruto closely observed this boy. He could tell that from his stature that he was not very confident and analyzing the boy's chakra, he could see why. The boy had an enormous amount of chakra resting along his spine and two points in his head, though almost none was held within his stomach, showing that the boy had little to no chance of completing a simple genjutsu or ninjutsu. Naruto had no idea how this boy could graduate.

"Mitarashi, Anko." A pregnant silenced washed over the crowd as a girl emerged and started to walk on the carpet. She was wearing a short-sleeved burgundy shirt with white wristbands and short khaki shorts. Her hair was a very faint purple, the color being more definite when the sun reflected off of her strands. She approached Minato and the blond smile down at the girl, handing her a scroll and gesturing for her to move over and join the others.

"Namikaze, Naruto," Minato called next, a sense of pride booming off of his voice. He smiled widely as Naruto stepped onto the carpet and started walking. He heard his mother and sister cheering obnoxiously and his friends' parents clapping politely. He also caught wind of other people in the crowd wondering how a person with one arm was supposed to become a shinobi, seeing it as an obvious handicap. He stopped before his father, looking at his father for the first time as an official shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato. His father smiled down at him, handing him a scroll and telling him to stand with the others.

"Sarutobi, Konohamaru." Konohamaru literally strutted out of the crowd with the broadest grin on his face, tears welling up in his eyes. He knew that he was technically already a genin, but the graduation just made it official. He looked at his grandfather and saw the largest smile on the man's face that he had ever seen. Konohamaru accepted the scroll from Minato and stepped up beside Naruto, flashing his best friend a large grin.

"Uchiha, Itachi." Itachi did not even walk up the carpet. A murder of crows just flew down the line of the carpet. Naruto could hear the fierce clapping and cheering of Itachi's mother Mikoto and quickly found her in the crowd, seeing his best friend's stoic father standing beside her. His face was as emotionless as usual. Itachi appeared out of the crows in front of Minato and the Hokage flashes the kid a grin. "Showing off for your clan, eh?" Minato asked the boy, winking at him.

Itachi gave a small smile, bowed to the Hokage, and accepted the scroll, walking over to stand next to Konohamaru, the young Sarutobi punching the Uchiha in the shoulder, both laughing a bit.

"Uchiha, Shisui." Nothing more than a black blur appeared, knocking many of the people in the crowd off of their feet, shouting indignantly. Standing before Minato was a boy around the same height as Itachi, but that was where the similarities ended. The boy had almond shaped eyes, a dark ring circling them. His hair was all over the place, showing that it was rather unruly and a slightly broad nose. His eyes were a bright red with three tomoe surrounding his pupil, indicating that the boy had his Sharingan activated. Naruto was marveling at this boy's chakra. It was...insane. So much of his chakra was built up within his eyes, yet there was still an enormous amount of it flowing through his body. Naruto snapped out of it as the boy walked over to Itachi, smiling at his best friend.

"As Yondaime Hokage, it is with my absolute honor and privilege that I welcome you all as Shinobi of Konohagakure. This is your official first step into the world of shinobi," Minato told the children in front of them. "Everyone is dismissed except those that wish to stay and the graduates." Minato announced to everywhere, the crowd clapping a bit before dispersing, a small gaggle of adults staying and approaching the small group of graduates.

Kushina was in the lead, holding Akiko's hand and the two laughed and smiled at Naruto as both of them gave him a big hug. They were about to start talking until Minato spoke again. "Naruto, we have a gift for you later, but for now, you and the other graduates will have to go to Room 7 in the Academy. There you will see who your Jōnin instructor will and your new teams. All of you are free to leave except for Itachi and Shisui. As Clan Head, Fugaku Uchiha wanted to have a meeting with all of us, so follow me," Minato told the two Uchiha boys, starting to walk away.

* * *

Naruto looked back and smiled at his friends before they all ran off in the direction of the Academy building, anxious to see who their new instructor will be. "I hope I get someone like Kakashi-san," Naruto told his friends. "Tō-san told me that Kakashi-san knows nearly the same amount of techniques as jījī. He's just lazy..." All of the kids chuckled at this and walked into Room 7 in the Academy.

Upon entering, Naruto noticed that both of the graduates that he did not know somehow managed to beat them to the room. The purple haired girl was sitting in the back row with her arms crossed. She gave off a general air superiority, like she was too competent of a shinobi to be sitting around in an academy room, waiting for someone to tell her to teach her. She looked over in the group's direction and a smug smile fell on her face as her eyes met Naruto's eyes. The boy just blew her off and looked at the other person that was already in the room. Rock Lee was sitting in the very front of the room, shaking nervously. But for what reason, Naruto could not tell. Naruto and his friends walked over and sat somewhat near the middle, getting comfortable.

They were about to get ready to have a small conversation when a cloud of smoke appeared at the front of the room, revealing a shinobi wearing the standard Konohagakure flak jacket. He had pale skin, but his face was littered in pimples. His eyes were a rusty gold and his hair matched them. He had a shallow scar on his right cheek that continued on over his eye. He looked around the room with cold and analytical eyes before realizing that he was in a room full of new genin. Almost immediately did his demeanor change. He now had a bright smile plastered on his face as he produced a scroll to read off.

"Hello, all. I am Mamoru Hideo, the Head Jōnin of Konohagakure no Sato," the young man bowed to everyone in the room. "I have held this position for about 8 years now and hope to pass it on to an extremely valuable and powerful person from the village. Now, enough of the pleasantries, you all aren't here to listen to me talk about myself. You're all here to learn about your teams." He opened up the scroll and an amused look came across his face. "About time that monster wanted a team. Team 3 will consist of Sarutobi, Konohamaru, Katō, Shizune, and Lee, Rock. Your Jōnin instructor is Maito Gai and he is currently waiting for you in...the Zeroth Training Ground, of all places..." Mamoru finished, waving at Team 3 to leave to go and meet their new instructor.

"Now, then. Team 9 will consist of Akimich, Chōji, Mitarashi, Anko, and Namikaze, Naruto. Your Jōnin instructor, who just so happens to be one of my best friends, is Hayate Gekkō. He should be waiting for you on the roof since he enjoys his fresh air. Oh, be patient with him. He's a little...sick," Mamoru told the last team before vanishing into thin air.

Naruto looked at Chōji and smiled, both of them with excitement etched into their faces. Naruto turns around and sees Anko getting to her feet, the young girl beginning to walk for the door. "Hey, Anko-san, would you care to walk with us to the roof"

The girl just gave Naruto the most incredulous look he had ever received and just laughed at him before continuing to walk for the door. Just as she was exiting, Naruto felt the chakra presence of a seal coming from her. He imagined that it had to be somewhere around her neck, since some tainted chakra was drifting off of her, but he put it aside, knowing that he cannot help someone who does not want to be helped.

Naruto and Chōji followed right behind Anko, all of them getting to the roof at the same time. The roof was a pretty blank space. There were several small pebbles littering the tiles, but there were small alcoves and little roofs around the place, with a couple of benches placed around for relaxing. Protecting people from potentially falling off of the roof was an iron black railing that covered the border of the edges. Leaning against this railing was man that Naruto had never seen before. The man turned around and Naruto got a good look at him. Like Mamoru said, you could see that Hayate was sick, but that was just in his face. He had a strong chakra about him, like it was always willing to fight for something. The man had short brown hair that peaked out of his forehead protector which he wore like a bandana. His eyes had dark lines underneath. He work the standard Konohagakure flak jacket with a navy blue one piece suit underneath it, but strapped onto his back was a katana with rectangular hand guard. The man smiles sleepily at his three new students and started to cough a bit.

"Hello," he spoke to them, coughing immediately afterward. "I am Hayate Gekkō, your new Jōnin instructor." He continued to cough for a good 5 seconds.

"Excuse me for coughing a bit too much. I'm pretty sick," he told his students, producing a handkerchief and wiping his mouth with it. "First, I would like to tell you all congratulations on graduating. Out of such a large class and for you all to have been the ones who graduated, and at your age, that is an amazing feat," he told them between coughs. "Now, since we are a team, I think it would be best if we got to know each other a little bit. My sensei did this with me and hers did the same.

"First, we talk a little about ourselves. We tell everyone what we want other people to know about us. Then after that, you talk about your interests, your life goals, and where you see yourself in 5 years. I'll start," Hayate told his team, gesturing for them to sit upon a bench. "Now, then. I am Hayate Gekkō, the 5th in line for clan head of the Gekkō Clan which hails from Tanigakure no Sato in Kawa no Kuni. But even though I am 5th in line, even if I had a chance of receiving clan head, I wouldn't be able to accept it due to my sickness. Now, then, some of my interests are sleeping, training, eating steak, and finding old artifacts. My life goal is to reestablish the Gekkō clan into the world, cleansing the bad name. Maybe some other time, I can tell you all about it sometime. But anyways, in 5 years, I see myself possibly marrying my girlfriend, Yūgau Uzuki, and having a kid on the way," Hayate finished, a sleepy smile on his face. "Now, then, how about you, Anko?"

Anko just crossed her arms and started to talk. "I am Anko Mitarashi and have received some...previous shinobi training. Some of my interests are snakes, eating dango, watching people bleed, and sitting around the Intelligence Division and waiting for Ibiki-sama to talk to me," Anko announced, getting a little misty eyed while thinking about torture and interrogation. "My life goal is to find my old sensei and to kill him. In 5 years, I see myself joining the Torture and Interrogation Force as the best torturer the force has ever seen," Anko finished confidently.

Hayate coughed a bit and looked at Chōji. "I am Chōji Akimichi and will be the 16th clan head of the Akimichi clan. My interests are food, training with friends, and hanging out with my friends. My life goal is to become the best Akimichi clan head I can be to make my father proud. And in 5 years, I see myself teaching my very own Genin team."

Hayate smiles at the boy and gestures for Naruto to begin. "I am Naruto Namikaze, the son of the Yondaime Hokage. There is not much to me, other than I will do anything it takes to protect my village and its people. My interests are eating ramen, training with friends, fūinjutsu, hanging out with my friends, and spending time with my family. My life goal is to become the strongest shinobi, despite my handicap of only having one arm." Anko laughed at this in a condescending way, but Naruto just continued on. "And in 5 years...honestly, I have no idea where I'll be or what I'll be doing in 5 years," Naruto finished, frowning a little at the last part.

Hayate nods at his last pupil, smiling at all of them before coughing a bit. "I am very happy to get to know about you all a little. We will have a better chance to learn more about each other tomorrow. Meet me at Training Ground 3 at 9:30 tomorrow morning." Hayate then Shunshined away, leaving the three teammates by themselves. Naruto and Chōji quickly followed suit, Shunshining away to look for their families and friends so that they could celebrate.

* * *

The first place they searched was the only place they needed to go. Hiruzen Sarutobi's house was bustling with activity. At least 40 people were running around the Sarutobi's Training Ground, transferring pots, pans, and bowls from the house to a long stone table that took up a little over half of the length of the Training Ground. Several sweet aromas wafted through the air and assaulted their noses, causing both of their mouths to water. Of course they knew that Hiruzen was an amazing cook, but they had never smelled food like this. Both of the boys walked onto the Training Ground and immediately cheers erupted, both boys getting hit by hugs from their mothers. Kushina was just nicely cuddling her son, but Chōji was nearly choked out, his large mother wrapping her son in her muscular arms, not letting go of him no matter. Naruto would have hated to be getting a hug from Chiharu right now, but he knew that he would be getting one soon unless he got out of there. He decided to avoid the bone-crushing hug by running into the Sarutobi house, helping people bring out stone tatami mats and other pots to place on the table.

* * *

The graduation dinner went extremely well. Plenty of food was passed around and devoured and plenty of drink was swallowed. Many laughs were shared and the older generation shared stories from when they graduated, a lot of them laughing hard at the fond memories. The celebration and get together lasted for around 5 hours, the eating only lasted for a good hour and a half and the rest was spent socializing. The first person who had to go was Danzō, for unknown reasons. After that, the crowd just started to leave.

Naruto really did enjoy spending a lot of time with all of those people, but he really treasured the moments where he could just sit down with his family and enjoy the simple things like playing with his sister or letting the girl draw on him. His father led him into the kitchen while his mother went upstairs, going to retrieve something. Minato smiled down at his son.

"I know that I already made you an honorary genin, but I am extremely proud of you, Naruto," Minato told his son. "Through so much hard work and determination, you made your handicap turn into your greatest weapon. You are the best son that me and your mother could have possibly asked for and I am so happy to be your father."

A teary eyed red headed woman sneaked into the room and wrapped her arms around Naruto. "Even though you have frightened me with your injury, you have made me the most proud mother, just from graduating from the Academy. I'm sure that you will only continue to make us proud, Naruto," Kushina told her son, hugging him tightly.

She then turned the boy towards Minato, who was now standing on the opposite side of a waist-high table. On top of the table is a long box, about 5 feet 6 inches long and about a foot wide. The box was severely worn out, showing that it might have some history to it. "I found this about a year ago," Minato started, "but I wanted to wait until you were an official shinobi of this village to give this to you. This is an ancient relic that was owned by the very first Namikaze clan head, who was known as _Fumetsu Ri, _because he was said to have lived for well over 200 years."

Naruto removes the top of the box and reveals a shakujō. It was made from the darkest metal that Naruto had ever seen and its beauty had stripped him of his breath. "W-what is it, Tō-san?" Naruto asks.

"Well," Kushina started, "Fumetsu Ri was actually a great monk and the leader of a monastery back in the old days. If the legends and writings are true, then Monk Ri was possibly one of the strongest monks to walk the earth."

"Some of the original scrolls written about Fumetsu Ri said that he lived before the Rikudō Sennin and that the Sennin wasn't born until Ri was about 150 years old," Minato told his son, watching Naruto continue to stare at the shakujō. "Apparently, Ri was even close friends with the Sennin's family and was there for his birth. The legends say that he taught the Sennin everything he knew, that Monk Ri's studies about the natural energy of the world gave the Sennin the basis for chakra. But before that, when Ri was only 25, the world was plagued with demons and Ri drove them off, slaying them all with this very shakujō. To make sure that no one would remember such a feat, the Great Kami erased the memories from mankind.

"I went back to the Namikaze Prefecture outside of Hachō-mura. It took me awhile, but after an hour and a half of walking, I came across a shrine built to remember Fumetsu Ri. There was a tall statue of the man and at the base of the statue was this box. We want you to have this, son, so that perhaps someday, you, too, could also protect the world," Minato told his son, smiling gently at the boy.

Tears filled up Naruto's eyes as he pushed his fingers gently against the cold metal of the staff. His fingers grazed against the six split rings around the head of the staff, creating a light tinkling noise, and that pushed Naruto over the edge. The boy ran forward and tries to hug both of his parents, which was exceedingly difficult for a boy with one arm.

* * *

Somewhere in an underground cave, sitting on a throne, is a man with short, spiky red hair with a small crystal ball placed on his lap. His face was covered in a Shinigami mask, but you could tell from the way his shoulders were shaking that he was experiencing some strong emotions. He briefly removed his mask while watching the events unfold in the Namikaze kitchen, wiping away a couple of tears. From the small amount of light that was coming from the crystal ball, one could see that the man had several scars littering his face, some even going into his lips and disfiguring one. His eyes were the most pale, milky blue that seemed to exist, but this description will have to be cut short as the man hears an alarm sound and he immediately places his mask back on. He gets off of his throne and waits for a second, seeing his companion with the spiral mask appear before him.

"Someone has breached the premises. Telling by their chakra signature, it seems to be-"

"I know who it is," the Shinigami masked man interrupted his friend. "Let's just go capture this bastard get all of the information we need out of him before wiping his memory of this place and sending him off." The man quickly vanished without a sound and his friend followed just a moment after.

A/N: I chose Hayate Gekkō because...well, I'm not sure if I've read one with him as a Team leader. I thought it would be a little fun, maybe having them in the middle of a serious conversation and he just starts to cough. And there will probably be more of Mamoru Hideo. Oh, I also gave Shizune Dan Katō's last name since she was his niece and for graduation purposes. And yeah, Naruto performing a Wind Release Rasengan was a little ridiculous lol SSJ Kyuubi Gohan, but for now, I'm making some of his training a bit unbalanced and unrealistic (which will be explained in the future~) Hope you all enjoyed and tune in next time for the new installment of Rise of the Kami!

Jutsu List

**Kai. - Release.**

******Doton: Dory****ū****heki! - Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!**

**********F****ū****ton: Shink****ū****gyoku! - Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere!**

**************Katon: Bakuf****ū**** Ranbu! - Fire Release: Blast Wave Wild Dance!** (originally used by Obito, but I just thought it would fit Konohamaru)

**Doton no Yoroi - Earth Release Armor**

******Dokugiri. - Poison Mist**

**********Rasengan - Spiraling Sphere**

**************Shinrai Tensei! - Almighty Push!**


	9. Chapter 9

It's been awhile. College has started up and I'm trying to balance out my schedule. Enjoy the read!

_Chapter 9_

Today was going to be such a long day for a certain Jōnin in Konohagakure no Sato and he definitely was not looking forward to it. Sure, Hayate Gekkō felt that he was more than ready to lead a team of genin, but he was not looking forward to training a shinobi who had one arm, son of the Yondaime Hokage or not. Of course, he would keep his thoughts to himself, but he just imagined that the kid was simply barking up the wrong tree. There were not many one armed shinobi in history, or with any handicap at all, for a reason. They just could not fight. Even old Danzō Shimura officially "retired" from working as a shinobi, taking missions and training genin teams. He did so because he knew that a shinobi with only one arm could not make it in this world. This world was harsh and unrelenting. There was no room for nurturing out on the battlefield. But no matter, Hayate still had to deal with it. He signed himself up for these duties, so there was no way out other than death.

The brown haired man continued to think while laying down in his twin bed. The sheets were all over the place and his hair just so happened to match, his brown locks sticking up in all manners. He looked over at his alarm clock and saw that it was only 07:00 and that he had too much time to kill before meeting his new team. Hayate started to cough a bit, contemplating what he should do before heading off to Training Ground 3, when there was a knock at his door. His face suddenly got serious and his cough stopped briefly, wondering who would possibly be knocking on his door so early. He climbed out of his bed and grabbed his katana, just in case he did not appreciate the disturbers reasons for their...disturbance.

He opened the door to reveal a man with spiky white hair that seemed to defy gravity. The man's forehead protector was pulled down to cover his left eye and with a black face mask covering the lower part of his face. He put his hand up in a sort of salute. "Yo."

Hayate put his katana behind the door and coughed a bit. "What are you doing over here so early, Kakashi? I thought some new people joined in ANBU not too long ago and you and Yugao were going to start training about now," Hayate told the man, looking behind to make sure it was really 07:00.

"Yeah, there are some new recruits, but Minato-sensei asked me to deliver something to you before you were to head out," Kakashi told Hayate, producing a small envelope. "I think I have to get back now. There's this really...interesting kid I want to train." Kakashi turned into a streak of black and was gone in an instant.

Hayate closed his door and sat down in a wooden chair at a small table before he flipped the envelope in his hands. Clearly enough, right on the front was the neat and proper of the Hokage. He pulled out a kunai and cut the side of the envelope, slipping the letter out. His eyes narrowed a bit as he read the letter the Hokage wrote for him, taking in all of the information. The brown haired man sighed as he got out of the chair. He decided that now was as good as time as any to shower for the day, because his day just got much more frustrating.

* * *

Naruto showed up at Training Ground 3, hoping to get a little bit of exercise in and to stretch his muscles. He did not want to get into a fight and his life being on the line because of a cramp. He walked over to three wooden stumps and took off his shakujō that his parents gave him the previous evening. He then spread his legs and started to reach for his toes, feeling a slight burning sensation in his thighs. He then proceeded to place his legs back together and he reached down, touching his toes 10 times, taking a 5 second break and doing it again 2 more times. After that, he sat down in a half lotus position and started to clear his mind.

Not long after him closing his eyes did he begin to sense a foul and dark chakra slowing approaching him, as if it was trying to sneak up on him. He opened his eyes and turned in the direction that the chakra was coming from and coming out of the trees was Naruto's new teammate, Anko. She was wearing a long sleeved burgundy shirt and short khaki shorts. The girl looked around the Training Grounds with a bored expression and walked right past Naruto, not even acknowledging him. She approached the three stumps and sat down with her back against the middle stump, her front facing Naruto.

"Good morning, Anko-san," Naruto said to the purple haired kunoichi politely. "Are you excited for today's training?"

"Sure, I am. Just don't get in my way," Anko spat at the boy. "I don't want anyone slowing down my progress. After all, I am the strongest genin and I did graduate top of the class," she said rather smugly.

"Saru mo ki kara ochiru," Naruto said to the girl, Anko just glaring daggers at him. He decided to bring up what had attracted her dark chakra to him. "So, where did you get that fancy seal from?"

Anko's face was now livid, as if Naruto had just called the girl ugly. He really did not know what was so wrong about him asking. "None of your damn business! So, butt out!" she cried at the boy, surprising him. He decided to wait awhile longer before asking her about the seal again. Obviously, it was a sensitive subject.

Naruto still sat in his half lotus position, but he could not focus on meditating anymore. The atmosphere around him and Anko was just too...awkward and forced. He really did want to talk to the girl, but she was not letting him. She would not give the boy a chance, which slightly saddened Naruto since he really did want to make as many friends as possible. But luckily for the two of them, both Chōji and Hayate arrived at the same time, the two having a bit of a conversation as they walked through the trees and came out of the forest.

Hayate saw his other two students seated on the Training Ground and was genuinely surprised, not expecting any new genin to be up so early, and completely prepared on top of that. He approached Naruto with Chōji in tow and told both of the boys to go stand with Anko at the stumps. He walked over with them, but stopped about 6 feet in front of them as he eyed each one of them down.

"I'm sure you all know why I told you all to come here this morning," Hayate started, coughing into his hand before continuing. "Per usual, the customs for new Genin teams is for their Jōnin instructors to give them some sort of test. The test is typically used to gauge the experience of the Genin and if the Genin do not exceed expectations or the bare minimum, then they are shipped back to the Academy until the next Graduation, repeating the same process over and over until," Hayate stopped for a cough break, "excuse me, until they are compotent shinobi.

"However, your graduation was special. Since so few teams were able to be formed out of the last batch of graduates, that makes you all official Genin who do not need a test to keep that rank," Hayate told them, obvious relief on their faces. "But I still want to see how far experienced you all are. I have seen some of Anko's training due to me being a substitute at the Academy last year, but I have not seen your experience, Naruto and Chōji," Hayate told the two boys, who both pouted a little. "I only have the words of your fathers, but don't worry, I will be looking at the experience that Anko holds, as well, since it has been a year. Now, the first person's skills I will analyze will be Anko's," Hayate announced, the purple haired girl stepping forward. "Then Chōji's, then Naruto's." Both of the boys nodded, content with their sensei's decision.

Hayate's mindset on training was thought up earlier during his shower. He would train Anko first. By looking at her appearance, you could tell that she was the strongest of the three. Her body just excreted strength. Next, he would train Chōji, believing that the Akimichi heir was middle tier, possibly low tier at worst. And finally, he would train Naruto. Seeing that the boy had one arm, he thought he would take the longest to set up a training schedule.

He and Anko walked about 20 feet away from the stumps before Anko got into a fighting position. Both of her hands were raised, a kunai gripped in her right hand, ready for the attack. Hayate took on her fighting stance and saw that she left far too many openings, that if this was a serious fight, she would most likely be dead when he laid his eyes on her. He just stood there, looking at the girl, making sure that she was comfortable in her stance.

"Attack me when you're ready, with everything you've got," Hayate told the girl.

An instant after, Anko dived into the fight, throwing a couple of wild swings at Hayate, who easily dodged them all. He thought that a previous student of the Sannin Orochimaru would be a little better than this, but then again, she was a fresh academy student. He was about to go in for a punch, but Anko threw her kunai at him an placed her right hand on her left forearm and three snakes shot from her sleeve, each one attempting to sink its fangs into Hayate. The sick man smiled at this, glad that she was now showing her true skills as he caught her kunai in between his fingers. He threw the kunai a few feet in front of him and one of the snakes got its head impaled to the ground, wiggling around before going still. Another snake was quickly approaching Hayate's legs and he kicked out deftly, decapitating the creature. He looked over at Anko and saw that even though they were not fighting for very long that she was already starting to sweat and pant.

"_Hm, better end this soon, then, so she can be awake for her lesson_,_" _Hayate thought to himself. _**"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"**_ Hayate said in his mind, two Kage Bunshins popping into existence.

Naruto was staring wide-eyed at what just happened in front of him. His new sensei just...summoned Kage Bunshins without the use of any hand seals. He _had_ to learn that from him soon.

All of the Hayates jumped around, confusing all of the Genin there, none of them knowing which Hayate was the real one. One of the Bunshins got really close to Anko and she started to attack it, letting her guard down at her back. The real Hayate saw this and took the opportunity to attack the girl to end the fight. Just as soon as she manages to dispel the fake Hayate, she turns around to see the real one directly in front of her. He lashes out with his fist, contacting her stomach and sending the girl flying backwards. He walks over to the girl, who is now clutching her stomach and is wheezing, and helps her to her feet.

"Nice job," Hayate told the girl, coughing. "I'll tell you what to improve after I finish evaluating the other two."

He pushed her off in the direction of the stumps as Chōji stepped forward, the chubby boy having a look of pure determination placed onto his face. "Whenever you're ready, Chōji."

Chōji just smiles and run at Hayate faster than he expected. Hayate placed both of his arms in front of him as he felt a bone-rattling punch come into contact with his arms. He backed away and shook his arms, getting some feeling back into them. _"If he was going to hit me in the chest with that, I'd probably be out cold right now,"_ Hayate thought to himself, as he charged Chōji.

The Akimichi enlarge his hand and caught Hayate's left hand, which was exactly what Hayate wanted him to do. When his left hand was trapped, he grabbed the large hand with his right and channeled some chakra into his arms so that he would be able to lift the boy with ease and threw him over his shoulder. Chōji starts to twist in the air to gain his bearings so that he could land on his feet flawlessly. He then pulled out some long string with several kunai attached to it and he threw those around his body before making the Akimichi hand seal.

"**Baika no Jutsu!"** Chōji's body instantly inflated, making him appear like a balloon. He then pulled his arms, legs, and head inside of his body and started to roll at an alarming pace towards Hayate. The kunai that were now around his body were scratching and tearing apart the earth on his way to the Jōnin and when he was close enough, Hayate just leaped over Chōji, thinking of a way to stop the _Nikudan Hari Sensha._

While Chōji was making his way back, mud jumped into Hayate's mind and he channeled some chakra into the earth around him, making it turn soft and liquidy. Once the tank rolled back to him, it ran into the mud, getting stuck the same way it did yesterday. But before he could revert his form and continue his attack on his sensei, Hayate began to perform some hand seals of his own. **"Doton: Ganchūrō no Jutsu!"** Four pillars made from earth popped out of the ground and held Chōji's spinning body in place.

Hayate then lights his right hand up with an orange aura and runs up to the tank, striking it. Immediately there is a puff of smoke and Chōji is revealed sitting in the mud, clutching his stomach. Hayate then places his hand on the boy's stomach, but with a red aura now, the chubby boy instantly feeling better. He helps him to his feet and smiles approvingly at the boy. "Very good, Chōji. Go wait over there with Anko and me and Naruto will be finished shortly," he told his pupil.

Naruto walks over to stand a good 15 feet in front of the staff. The boy was standing straight up, though he had his shakujō with him, the silvery-black staff touching the ground. Even though he was just standing there, Hayate could immediately tell that Naruto had almost no openings, that he would have to create some. He looked at the boy's face and was briefly unsettled. Naruto had a plain smirk on his face, one that read "I've got you where I want you now". Hayate coughed a bit and gulped and says, "Attack when you are ready."

Naruto just disappeared, running at Hayate much faster than he had anticipated, managing to strike the Jōnin on the shin lightly, causing him to jump away. Hayate's eyes are wide, really impressed that the kid could move so fast and that he managed to push him back so quickly. Naruto just straightened up and smiled a bit nervously, sticking the staff into the ground and scratching the back of his head. "Sorry about that. I only just got this shakujō and I'm learning how to get the balance right." He took his staff back out of the dirt and charged at Hayate again, but this time, Hayate was able to anticipate all of his attacks.

He blocked all of Naruto's strikes with his hands, feeling the metal beat into his palms. Just when he thinks he will have an opening, Naruto jumps back, performing a perfect back flip, and tosses his staff at Hayate while still upside down. Hayate jumps to the side as the staff lands in his previous spot and then hears the crumbling and breaking of earth and looks at Naruto.

"**Doton Hari!" **About 50 12 inch long spikes of earth began to shoot out at Hayate, the man feeling that this was a desperate enough situation to use his trusty katana. While he was destroying the hail of spikes, he had to smile at the boy's strategy work. If he had not heard the sounds of the earth shifting, then he would probably been impaled right now.

Naruto runs forward and places his staff on his lower back, parallel to the ground, and charges at Hayate again, a small blue sphere now in the boy's hand. Hayate's eyes widen and he makes a ballsy move, throwing his shoulder into the boy. His shoulder hit Naruto directly in the chest, but that was the only chance that Naruto needed. When his _Rasengan _dispersed, he slapped his hand onto Hayate's chest, leaving the _Hiraishin _seal there. Naruto got knocked back and feigned injury, not wanting his sensei to know that his plan actually worked. Naruto then reached into the supply pouch on his leg and pulled out a Hiraishin kunai. He quickly weighed the blade in his hand before tossing it up and performing a few hand seals before catching it again.

"**Fūton: Shinkūjin,"** Naruto said right before he began to breath out an excessive amount of Fūton chakra that stuck to the Hiraishin kunai, making it resemble white scimitar.

Hayate twitches his blade, getting ready for Naruto to attack him again, but he was not ready for Naruto to disappear in a flash of red and reappear directly in front of him, his shifting scimitar ready to pierce through him. Hayate quickly ran some Katon chakra through his sword, its metal glowing red and he was about to strike Naruto when the boy disappeared again, now reappearing behind him. Hayate turned around to attack, but Naruto disappeared again, making Hayate frazzled. He then heard Naruto speak of a technique that he had never heard of.

"**Hiraishingiri." **Naruto disappeared and Hayate felt his sword slice through his back before he turned around and swung his own sword, catching Naruto on his right shoulder and causing the boy to scream as he felt the Katon chakra begin to burn his blood and skin.

Hayate ran over to the boy and placed his hand over the wound, extracting the chakra and patting Naruto's shoulder and smiling at him. "That was amazing! You are amazing! Why you are only a Genin is beyond me!" Hayate said with excitement in his voice. He realized that he underestimated Naruto and the boy seemed to know that, taking advantage of the older shinobi's ignorance. He smiles again and walks over to his other two students.

Anko was watching the entire fight with wide eyes, not really being able to comprehend that this...one armed boy was able to inflict a wound onto their new sensei and not just any sensei, but Hayate Gekkō of the Mikazuki, a renowned kenjutsu specialist. Naruto was...simply amazing. And to think that she was being rude to him and he could have kicked her ass around if he wanted to! Maybe he would be able to train her? Just by watching her two teammates, she could tell that she was pretty far behind both of them and she needed all of the training she could possibly get.

"Hey," Hayate started, getting interrupted by his cough, "how about I treat us to some dango and we discuss today's training." Anko immediately forgot all aspects of training and began to drool as Hayate started to walk back towards the village, presumably to the Dangoya Kinako.

* * *

About 10 plates of Mitarashi Dango were on the table and Anko was digging in to the aptly named dango, reveling in the sweetness that filled ever nook and cranny of her desires. Hayate told the owner, Kinako, that she should just keep the tab open and he would pay before they left. He sits down while Anko is removing a clean skewer from her mouth and reaching for another tasty treat.

"So, first is Anko," Hayate begins, taking a skewer and plopping one of the dumplings into his mouth. "I think what would you help you out the most during a fight is if you are more calm. I could literally feel all of the emotions drifting out of your mind. You were also a little too reckless and a bit too eager, not knowing when to necessarily pull back, but you just kept pushing me. And your chakra control is subpar. I noticed that after you summoned snakes. You must have used up a lot of chakra for that, because you looked down right exhausted." Hayate then pulled out a map and unrolled it on the table, showing that it was a calendar. "Anko, every Monday, you and I will train together. I think first, we'll start with some basic chakra control exercises and move on from there.

"Now, then, Chōji, you showed some great aptitude for the Akimichi clan skills," Hayate started, tossing another dumpling into his mouth, "but, just like Anko, you were a little too reckless with your moves. I don't advise you to use the _Nikudan Sensha _unless you can find a way to use it and being able to see at the same time. Tuesday will be reserved for you.

"As for Naruto, well, I am extremely impressed," Hayate told the boy sitting across from him and next to Anko. "But even though your skills are great, everyone can use some serious training, so Wednesday will be yours.

"Do any of you have any training in genjutsu?" Hayate asks the group, coughing into a napkin.

Anko nods and both Naruto and Chōji shake their heads. "Well, I'll throw some of that into your lessons as well. Even if you aren't too great at it, a simple genjutsu can defeat an enemy that has literally no experience with them.

"Now, as for the rest of the week: on Thursdays we will have some team training, working on your team work. Our Fridays and Saturdays will be reserved for missions and Sunday will be a grace period, allowing you to do whatever you wish. But, we'll have to start that schedule another time. Hokage-sama wanted to see us about a mission," Hayate told them, getting wide and excited eyes from all of his students. "You three head over there while I pay Kinako."

* * *

"Team 9 reporting for duty, Hokage-sama," Hayate wheezed out as he stood in front of the Hokage desk with his team of Genin stand behind him. "What is our mission?"

"Well, normally, I wouldn't send a fresh Genin team out for a mission," Minato started, rubbing his temple, "but all other teams are either on their way to Sunagakure no Sato for this year's Chūnin exam or already out on missions. I would have sent Team 3, but Gai insists that he has a student who is not ready yet for such a mission. But, I regress," Minato hands Hayate a scroll as the brown haired man starts to read it. "Your mission is to travel to Takumi no Sato to pick up a weapon for a private collector. This is a C-Rank mission, considering it is just a delivery mission, but the amount of time it will take makes me bump it up to a B-Rank."

"How long should it take, Hokage-sama?" Hayate asked the blond while reading the scroll.

"Hopefully, no longer than two weeks, but the collector says that this weapon is worth it. He has already paid half of the money he has offered and will pay the final have once the weapon is delivered," Minato told him.

"What makes this weapon so expensive, Tō-san?" Naruto asked his father, wondering why the weapon really was that important.

"The swordsmith who made this weapon is none other than Masamune," Minato announced, making Hayate's eyes grow big with excitement. "He has made several other weapons that have been lost in the past 70 years, but this last one he made is special. I do not know the details about it, but I just know that this blade is none like any other created. It will also be the last blade the he will create, his 98th birthday passing just last week and he has fallen deathly ill. The delivery zone is a shack about 15 miles west of Kirigakure. The most you should expect out there are a couple of bandits, but I'm sure that you all can handle your own. You shall all leave first thing tomorrow morning. Good luck."

The four of them all bowed to Minato and walked out of the office. The blond Hokage sighed as he went back to any Kage's worst enemy: paperwork.

Jutsu List

_**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! - Shadow Clone Technique!**_

******Baika no Jutsu! - Multi-Size Technique!**

_Nikudan Hari Sensha - Spiked Human Bullet Tank_

**********Doton: Ganchūrō no Jutsu! - Earth Release: Rock Pillar Prison Technique**

**************Doton Hari! - Earth Needles!**

_Rasengan - Spiralling Sphere_

**Fūton: Shinkūjin - Wind Release: Vacuum Blade**

**Hiraishingiri - Flying Thunder God Slash**

Japanese Proverb

Saru mo ki kara ochiru - Even monkeys fall from trees (said in response to Anko boasting about her accomplishments; "Prides comes before the fall")


End file.
